AppSheet Platform Upgraded with OCR Capabilities

December 3, 2019

AppSheet has added Optical Character Recognition (OCR) and new predictive model features to its intelligent platform, enabling business users to speed up data entry, perform statistical analysis of data, and integrate machine learning (ML) processing capabilities in smart enterprise apps—all without writing a single line of code.

AppSheet’s new OCR and no-code ML features builds on the company’s previously announced artificial intelligence (AI) and natural language processing (NLP) features, including Spec and Smart Assistant. These industry-first AI and NLP capabilities (in a no-code app platform) provide a user-friendly interface to technical and non-technical users alike, combining NLP with data-driven learning to discern what kind of app the user wants, and to build it interactively in real-time.

“Our new OCR and predictive model capabilities further demonstrate how any business can easily embed AI and ML capabilities in intuitive software solutions to help drive productivity, without requiring specialized developers or data scientists,” said Praveen Seshadri, founder and CEO of AppSheet. “AppSheet empowers the business user to create and deploy apps that improve processes and drive productivity. Because no coding is required, business users can do it themselves without the need for expensive IT resources. With the new AI/ML features, these apps can now use data-driven intelligence to provide a smarter user experience and drive greater productivity gains.”

According to Gartner, “The number of enterprises implementing AI grew 270 percent in the past four years and tripled in the past year, according to the Gartner, Inc. 2019 CIO Survey. Results showed that organizations across all industries use AI in a variety of applications, but struggle with acute talent shortages.”1

AppSheet disrupts the traditional code-based application development process. It combines a declarative no-code model with platform intelligence. Business users can innovate and create multi-platform apps without writing any code. Instead of hiring developers (in a constrained tech talent market), the AppSheet intelligent no-code approach is more agile, significantly more powerful, and comes at a fraction of the cost.

Building Smarter Apps with AppSheet OCR and ML-Powered Predictive Models

AppSheet’s new OCR feature allows users to access the text or writing that appears in an image, eliminating data entry errors and speeding up data entry by automatically filling out forms from an image, creating digital workflows from a paper-based system. For example, scanning conference badges that are necessarily physical, yet an app is required to digitally store the badge data.

AppSheet’s new predictive models perform a statistical analysis of users’ app data to make predictions about future outcomes. Each predictive model is powered by a machine learning algorithm that learns to generalize from your historical data. One example of this type of predictive model includes categorizing customer input based on examples of the feedback and the categories to which they belong. Another example involves predicting customer churn by using customer instances and data on whether they have ended their relationship. Finally, another predictive model includes estimating the cost of a project given the examples from previous projects, as well as how much they cost.