How AI Streamlines Document Review, Data Entry, and E-Filing

Tyler Tech Podcast Episode 102, Transcript

Our Tyler Technologies podcast explores a wide range of complex, timely, and important issues facing communities and the public sector. Expect approachable tech talk mixed with insights from subject matter experts and a bit of fun. Each episode highlights the people, places, and technology making a difference. Give the podcast a listen today and subscribe.

Show Notes

On this episode of the Tyler Tech Podcast, we explore the transformative power of artificial intelligence in the public sector with Henry Sal, Tyler's senior director of AI operations. With extensive experience in software development, Henry has been at the forefront of integrating AI to streamline processes, particularly in document automation.

He discusses how AI is reshaping government operations — from reducing the burden of mundane tasks like data entry and document review to enhancing efficiency in court e-filing systems. Henry also explores the role of AI in addressing workforce shortages and improving public service delivery, offering insights into how local governments can prepare for and leverage these advancements.

We also detail our latest white paper about the five main risks of legacy systems. You can download that here: Is Your Legacy Digital Infrastructure Putting You at Risk?

Learn more about the topics discussed in this episode with these resources: 

•    Video: Embracing AI: Document Understanding and Workflow Automation
•    Success Stories: Tarrant County Clerk: A First-Of-Its-Kind AI Implementation
•    Blog: Unblocking Justice: AI Solutions for Common Court Challenges
•    Blog: Implementing AI: A Step-by-Step Guide for Your Court
•    Blog: Navigating AI: A Beginner’s Guide for Court Professionals
•    Blog: Future-Proofing Government Through Technology Modernization

Listen to other episodes of the podcast.

Let us know what you think about the Tyler Tech Podcast in this survey!

Transcript

Henry Sal: AI doesn't maintain human touch in prep public services. It improves it by allowing the county government to utilize their scarce and valuable human resources to provide more contact with the public and get them out of doing hands down keyboard data entry, document review jobs.

Josh Henderson: From Tyler Technologies, it's the Tyler Tech podcast, your source for insightful conversations with thought leaders addressing the pressing issues in our communities.
I'm Josh Henderson, and I'm on the corporate marketing team here at Tyler. Thanks for joining us.

In each episode, we dive into the essential topics shaping our society and shed light on the individuals, places, and technologies empowering the public sector.

If you like what you hear, please consider giving us a five-star rating and review, subscribing on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts, and recommending the show to others. On today's episode, we're joined by Tyler's senior director of AI operations, Henry Sal.

Henry has over four decades of experience in software development, and throughout his career, he has been at the forefront of integrating AI to streamline processes, particularly in the realm of document automation.

In today's discussion, we explore Henry's career journey, the latest advancements in AI, and the challenges that come with implementing these technologies in local government.

From reducing the mundane tasks of document review and data entry to revolutionizing court e filing and improving public service efficiency, Henry shares insights on how AI is reshaping the way government operates.

We also touch on the future of AI, the role it plays in addressing workforce shortages, and how local governments can prepare to leverage these advancements.

Whether you're a tech enthusiast, a public sector professional, or simply curious about the future of AI, this episode is packed with information you don't want to miss. We hope you enjoy the episode.

Alright, Henry. Thank you so much for joining me today on the podcast.

Henry Sal: Josh, it's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for inviting me.

Josh Henderson: Of course. Of course. Now, Henry, you have a lot of experience in artificial intelligence space. You know, this conversation will focus heavily on AI. But before we jump into that, I was just hoping you could tell us a little bit about your career journey up to and including what you do now here at Tyler?

That would take a long period of time because I've been in the software development business for about forty years.

I started a company called Computing System Innovations.

And in the later days of it, we got involved with doing document processing using legacy technology called regular expressions to find data. And then we transition that into machine learning to be able to process documents more accurately than possible with human software developers.

And we ended up automating high volume workflows for different local and state government, mostly in the clerk's space, and also private sector for commercial banking, health care, and title company processing. So large, document volumes. Bottom line is my focus has been on finding AI technologies that would assist humans in not having to read and process documents. And then along the way, we ended up doing a lot of redaction business.

And then we were partners with Tyler Technologies in the redaction space for quite some time. And then about a year ago, actually, the anniversary was coming up shortly. Tyler decided to acquire my organization called Computing System Innovations. Now we operate as a division within Tyler's enterprise justice.

Josh Henderson: That's great. That's great. Now, obviously, AI has certainly been a hot topic, in recent years, and there's obviously still a lot of questions and concerns about, you know, implementation from a public sector standpoint.

But when it comes to transitioning, you know, to digital operations, what are some of the key challenges in adopting AI technologies, and how can these hurdles be overcome?

Henry Sal: The biggest challenge I see is the client's knowledge of AI and that it being limited to what they currently are exposed to.

Most of the current knowledge I see is being, that they are aware of is being AI and chat applications.

So, they look for how AI and chat applications can improve their services when there's so much more to AI that can be accomplished.

I believe and have actually been successful in inventing a solution that uses AI to read and understand documents with greater accuracy than humans.

Educating the counties and the governments as to the potential applying AI other than what they are aware of, I think is an important idea. And then that's a challenge they face. They can essentially take the AI and apply it to things other than chatbot applications.

So, use of AI and document intake workflows allows the county to adopt the technologies to process information faster than humans can and with, expanded hours for providing additional county services. So, do counties know more and more about what AI capabilities are, not just from their ChatGPT applications?

I think that it's kind of important in adopting more AI technologies to assist companies.

Josh Henderson: It’s very much a workforce efficiency solution.

And we've heard we've heard about AI and machine learning a lot, making an impact in the public sector, as well. But how are these technologies sort of revolutionizing routine government tasks, like you said, like document processing? And, you know, what specific technologies are having the biggest impact in your opinion?

Henry Sal: AI or machine learning applied to document processing automation is a specific So document So document understanding AI has two main areas related to document processing.
The first is document classification, where the contents of a document are used to determine its type.

The second is data location.

It's used primarily for data extraction, but also for data redaction.

As to specific technologies, traditional document understanding AI has used algorithms that are based upon the presence of words as well as their meaning.

An example of this, let's say a text string, Sue Smith.

The presence here of the word Sue Smith is only half of the equation.

Sue Smith in context can either refer to Sue Smith being a person's name or an action. I'm going to Sue Smith, which obviously has a different meaning for being able to extract a person's name or an action.

So, if you're looking for names, the meaning of the text doesn't matter. So that's traditional, AI algorithms.

The biggest impact in document understanding space now is a new algorithm called a transformer.

It was invented by Google Brain, Google Research, and University of Toronto in two thousand and seventeen, and it's recently come to fame with its use in something everybody is probably familiar with in its chat g p t.

The transformer algorithm itself provides billions of parameters or reference points for being able to classify a document correctly or extract information that allows the classification and data location to far exceed what humans are capable of doing in terms of accuracy.

So, the greater the accuracy, the less documents have to be reviewed by humans. So, the technologies that we are implementing and have the largest impact in county government processing are the transformer algorithms.

Josh Henderson: We can't really talk about AI without also mentioning, you know, workforce shortages, specifically in the public sector or in county government. And this is, you know, this is due to retirements, or competition in the public sector or the sorry, the private sector. And there's a growing need to do more, you know, with fewer employees. So, in your opinion, how can AI help local governments tackle this challenge of workforce shortage?

Henry Sal: That's pretty easy in my mind. Use of document understanding AI, apply to document intake and review workflows in any government office and their applications that has humans reviewing documents minimizes, if not eliminates, the need for humans to review documents to perform mundane data entry into systems.

Our clients typically report that they reduce their manual review of documents by fifty to eighty five percent, requiring less staff to perform the, what I call, mundane document review work, and make those staffers that were previously looking at documents and doing data entry available for other areas in the organization. So, you can automate your document intake workflows, using AI document understanding to reduce the amount of labor that's required and also make your staff happier because they no longer have to do routine repetitive tasks which are boring.

Josh Henderson: Stay tuned. We'll be right back with more of the Tyler Tech Podcast.
I hope you're enjoying listening to this episode of the Tyler Tech Podcast.

I'm here with my colleague, Jade Champion, to talk about the importance of tech modernization.

Are you struggling to maintain your legacy systems? It might be time for a change.

Jade Champion: That's right, Josh. We just released a white paper that outlines the five main risks of legacy systems and the benefits of modernizing your digital infrastructure.

Josh Henderson: From security weaknesses to inefficiencies and high maintenance costs, legacy systems can really hold back government agencies. So, what are some of the benefits of future proofing with an updated tech stack?

Jade Champion: Modern cloud-based solutions help to streamline processes, protect against cyber threats, improve the resident experience, meet compliance requirements, and provide more scalability.

Josh Henderson: Are you ready to leave your legacy systems behind and improve your digital services?

Check out our show notes for resources to help you get started and reach out to us at podcast@tylertech.com to connect with a Tyler expert today. Now let's get back to the Tyler Tech Podcast. 

We've talked about, you know, we've talked about, employees, in the public sector. Now let's switch the perspective, to the residents and the public's expectations for, you know, things like digital speed and convenience when it comes to, you know, technology.

How would you say integrating AI and county government services helps to meet these demands? And can you share some examples of improved public services, thanks to AI?

Henry Sal: I have a unique example that will resonate with people that may not be applicable to government, but I'll make the transition to government services in a few moments after I talk about my example. So, my example is pizza delivery.

Everybody now and then goes on to the Internet and orders a pizza.

Now when you place an order online for pizza and if your pizza shows up two to three days later, I'm pretty sure no one's going to be pleased with that delivery service and that organization.

So, let's transition this to e-filing for courts.

If an attorney or if I'm an attorney and I submit a filing over an Internet portal, I don't expect it to show up in the clerk's case management system two to three days after I press the submit button. But in a lot of cases, that's what's happening.

Due to increased volumes of documents and e-filings and reduced staff, the humans in their review process take time to get to the file transaction, so it's not an instantaneous activity from pressing submit to it being usable, for court or being publicly available.

But adding AI automation to an e filing workflow reduces the time from submission to being available on a case management system from days to minutes.

In addition, it also allows the review process to occur on the same timeline that the attorneys are doing the filings.

So, attorneys can file at two o'clock in the morning. And if the clerk's office is running eight to five, that transaction is not going to be seen until the next day if the clerk is rapid or a couple days afterwards.

Having the concept of AI automation in a document intake workflow expands the ability of the county government to process documents coming into the system on a twenty-four by seven by three sixty-five basis, and you have software processing the majority of documents that are being received. So, you're expanding the operation cycle or operation timeline of a government office as well as providing more rapid review, by using software to process your documents.
Josh Henderson: I think the, the pizza delivery analogy is a really is a really good and relatable one. So, thank you for that.

Now, you know, we talked about workforce shortages, and retirements are definitely a huge part of that.

I want to talk a little bit about the sort of new generation of employees that are entering the public sector. So, you know, in creating a savvy work environment or technologically savvy work environment that sort of appeals to this new generation of employee, what role does AI play in that, and how can county governments sort of balance the integration of AI while maintaining that human touch, that we all know, is a is a huge part of public services?

Henry Sal: For starters, AI allows county governments to use software to eliminate the mundane jobs of document review and data entry. I personally don't like having to look at my emails each day as most of them are trivial items that have nothing to do and essentially just consume my time. I have to make a quick decision then, you know, hit delete or send it on to somebody else.

Imagine having a job where you have to look at documents fed to you by a system daily and you're judged in terms of your performance on how quickly you can review them and, you know, make corrections and do data entry.

In fact, we have clients that are saying that they go through the process of training new staff, the current generation, and they put them into their production workflows and they quit because they really don't want to do the mundane job of, you know, repetitive review and data entry.

So, the process is boring, and people are looking for jobs that are fulfilling.

So now if you use AI automation software, you don't require humans to perform the mundane repetitive tasks, and you can have the humans now being available to do things that are humans are more, better suited and happier doing, like talking to other humans. So, AI doesn't maintain human touch in per public services. It improves it by allowing the county government to utilize their scarce and valuable human resources to provide more contact with the public and get them out of doing heads down keyboard, data entry, document review jobs. So, we actually, or I actually consider that we're a software delivery mechanism for staff happiness.
If you implement solutions that can get rid of the boring part of a person's job, that person's going to be very happy with their employer.

Josh Henderson: And I know that you've seen, sort of these types of technologies advance very significantly over time, and throughout your career.

And I know predicting technology advancements is, you know, it's a bit of a fool's errand because it's advancing so rapidly. But we always like to wrap up our episodes with sort of a glimpse into the future.

So, looking ahead, what do you see as the most promising developments in AI for county government operations, and how should local governments prepare to leverage these advancements and future proof their services?

Henry Sal: Advancements in AI algorithms or the speed at which AI actually builds new AI just in the field of document understanding is tremendous.

Advancements are occurring in a microcosm of time compared to what they previously required before you had new software algorithms.

So, software advancements and also hardware advancements.

The device of choice for AI nowadays is something called a GPU or graphic processing unit.
Nvidia is the leader in this technology. There are others, AMD and Intel to some extent and Broadcom too. But the chips which these things run on typically come out with new advancements every three to five years. Nvidia has recently made a public announcement, actually backed it up with that their advancements are going to be released every year, and that's exponential advancements, like, five to ten times quicker hardware. So, you're going to end up seeing a lot of changes to algorithms software, a lot of changes to hardware.

So in terms of how local governments can protect their investment in any AI, first off, as with any acquisition, you need to vet and select an experienced partner in their business processes and not just the AI flavor of the day because you're going to end up with a lot of AI vendors out there saying, yes. I can do x y z, and they have no idea what x y z is. They just know AI. So, select an experienced partner that knows your business that is offering AI within their organization.
Tyler has made continues to make significant investments in being an AI leader in the local government space.

And so offering the AI as a fully contained software as a service model Absolute future proofs any client investment in technology because it isolates the client to only being exposed to business process improvements, and all the underlying infrastructure and algorithms and hardware is accommodated for by the experienced vendor, whether it be Tyler or your vendor of choice. Tyler, I'm saying, is just because of our acquisition, and I'm very much aware of the investments they're making in improving our technology too, offer it within other areas outside of courts and justice within the Tyler ecosystem.

Josh Henderson: That's great, Henry. Thank you so much for joining me today on the podcast. This was such a great conversation, and I hope you can come back again soon to talk, whatever we see, as we move into the future here.

Thank you very much for your time. It's been a nice experience, and I look forward to answering any questions in the future of where we're going and what we're concentrating on.
We hope you enjoyed this conversation with Henry Sal. If you'd like to learn more about AI solutions and other topics discussed throughout the episode, check out our show notes for more resources.

A modern digital infrastructure allows the public sector to adapt in the digital age. From operational agility to data management and analytics, as well as cost savings, security, compliance, and scalability, governments are poised to take advantage of innovative technologies to create more efficiencies in their systems and better support and connect their communities.

From operational agility to data management and analytics, as well as cost savings, security, compliance, and scalability, governments are poised to take advantage of innovative technology to create more efficiencies in their systems and better support and connect their communities.

Tyler creates solutions made exclusively for the public sector and has experts with government experience ready to support you on this journey.

I hope you're excited about what the future holds and will reach out to us at podcast@tylertech.com to connect with the subject matter expert if you'd like to learn more.
And whether it's artificial intelligence and machine learning or a modern digital infrastructure or something else entirely, we want to hear from you about what you'd enjoy hearing more of and how we can make the Tyler Tech Podcast even better.

Fill out our audience survey in the show notes today to let us know how you heard about the show and your ideas for future episodes.

And don't forget to subscribe to the show and rate and review the podcast.

For Tyler Technologies, I'm Josh Henderson. Thanks for joining the Tyler Tech Podcast.