A new AI agent from Melbourne company Affinda allows a conversation to replace menus and multi-step set-up wizards during document automation workflow.

Teams can describe documents, business needs and where the data needs to go.

The AI agent then configures the workflow, and Affinda’s platform handles processing, from ingestion through to useful data.

“The agent proposes the full configuration for every step in Affinda platform. You review it, adjust it, then go live,” the insurtech said.

Head of AI Andrew Bird says other approaches require technical teams to separately configure ingestion, splitting, classification, extraction, validation and integration.

“We’ve collapsed that entire process into one conversation,” he said.

Invoices, contracts, claims forms, settlement packs, purchase orders and identity documents are “messy” and errors can “slip downstream before anyone notices”, Affinda says.

Its AI agent connects to thousands of business systems, and processes can be inspected and adjusted or rejected.

GM of platform Charlie Bellingham says insurance industry workflows that once took six to nine months of implementation can now be configured in 10 minutes.

“For an insurance team, full document automation has often felt out of reach – too much set-up, too much developer time ... Teams can now see it working before they’ve committed to anything,” he said.

The Affinda platform is used in more than 80 countries, and the company has teams across the Asia-Pacific region, North America and Europe.