Survey Reveals 65% of Companies Are Accelerating Intelligent Document Processing Projects

• Biggest cited benefit of IDP was reduced processing time (50%), rather than headcount reductions (30%) — underscoring its role as a productivity booster, not a workforce-cutting tool.
• Despite significant digital transformation efforts, 61% of IDP processes still involve paper, and 48% of respondents expect their paper use to increase.

SER, the leading provider of Intelligent Content Automation solutions, today released findings from a major study of the Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) market. The study found that AI-augmented document processing adoption is rising and shifting into the front office, yet key barriers remain — with nearly half of enterprises expecting paper use to increase, despite years of “digital-first” initiatives.

The study — conducted by AIIM (Association for Intelligent Information Management) with Deep Analysis, and co-sponsored by SER — surveyed 600 large U.S. and European organizations on their use of IDP, found that 65% of enterprises are actively considering or implementing new IDP initiatives, with two-thirds focused on replacing legacy systems.

The AIIM Market Momentum Index: Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) Survey 2025 confirms IDP as a well-accepted enterprise use case for artificial intelligence (AI), with 78% of these organizations already using some form of AI.      

AI adoption rises as IDP moves from back to front office

Fueled by a wave of GenAI-powered IDP solutions, the research reveals that adoption is rapidly expanding beyond traditional back-office functions like invoice processing. Front-office use cases — such as managing HR files, contracts, licenses and permits, and KYC (know your customer) onboarding — are now taking the lead, showcasing AI-augmented IDP’s ability to handle complex, unstructured documents.

Critically, respondents report that the biggest benefit from IDP is reduced processing time (50%), rather than headcount reductions (30%) — underscoring its role as a productivity booster, not a workforce-cutting tool.    

Businesses anticipate growing reliance on paper despite digital push

The research also flagged key barriers to unlocking IDP’s full potential. Despite significant digital transformation efforts, 61% of IDP processes still involve paper, and 48% of respondents expect their paper use to increase. The geographic split is stark: European firms anticipate a 50% drop in paper use within the next year, while U.S. companies expect only a 30% reduction.

This ongoing reliance on paper shows that digitization alone won’t deliver a fully paperless workplace. Cultural and regulatory hurdles — such as healthcare’s persistent use of fax — must also be addressed to achieve truly digital workflows.

Lack of tech expertise hinders organizations’ ability to unlock value of IDP

The research also flagged the fact that over 50% of the respondents report a shortage of technological expertise and process redesign skills — prompting the recommendation that, to maximize ROI, organizations should invest in change management and robust cross-functional training.

Another constraint to IDP adoption is mounting concern over data security and privacy, cited as the top issue by the 600 respondents and reflecting growing scrutiny of AI’s access to sensitive information. Integration challenges rank second, underscoring the need for interoperable standards (such as Model Context Protocol and Agent2Agent) and embedded IDP capabilities within ECM, CRM and ERP platforms.  

GenAI leads solution selection

Notably, GenAI-powered research has overtaken traditional references and analyst reports as the leading method for selecting IDP solutions. Even so, the study underscores that proof-of-concept testing and industry-specific expertise remain essential in the buying process.

A bright future for IDP and the knowledge worker

“Technologies for processing documents and recognizing invoices have been around for some time, but we’re now seeing a major AI-driven leap forward. The AIIM survey confirms what we see every day: organizations need faster, smarter, and more scalable automation,” says Dr. John Bates, CEO of SER Group.

He continues: “At SER, we’re redefining Intelligent Document Processing with Doxis as the industry’s only truly unified Intelligent Content Automation platform, merging Enterprise Content Management (ECM), Business Process Management (BPM) and IDP into one AI-powered solution. Our customers achieve over 99% accuracy on key document types, start small with pre-built use cases, and scale rapidly across the enterprise. That’s why deployments happen in weeks, not months — driving real ROI, freeing knowledge workers from mundane tasks, and empowering them to focus on strategic business goals that create true added value.”

SER Group is recognized as a Leader in both the Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Document Management 2024* and the IDC MarketScape for Intelligent Document Processing Software 2023-2024**.

About the AIIM Market Momentum Index: Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) Survey 2025

Together with Deep Analysis, AIIM questioned over 600 U.S. and European organizations with revenues surpassing $10 million and exceeding 500 employees were questioned in May 2025 regarding Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) software. As the report states, “IDP harnesses AI to read documents and extract data from them. It replaces older software such as document capture or optical character recognition (OCR). IDP can be a standalone product or part of a larger software solution; this survey applies to both.”

*Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Document Management, Applications and Software Engineering Research Team, 18 December 2024, ID G00808538
**IDC MarketScape for Worldwide Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) Software 2023-2024 Vendor Assessment, doc #US49988723, November 2023.