AI document search and RAG for businesses in Corsica
AI document search lets you find information in your documents simply by asking a question, and pull data automatically from invoices, contracts or forms. From Bastia, we set these tools up on your own files, with answers that cite their sources.
What is AI document search, and what is RAG?
In most organisations the information already exists, but it is scattered: shared folders, email attachments, scanned PDFs, old contracts, procedure notes. Keyword search fails as soon as you do not know the exact term or the file name.
RAG (retrieval-augmented generation) solves this. When you ask a question, the system first searches your documents for the relevant passages, then asks an LLM, a large language model that can understand and write text, to compose an answer from those passages alone. The answer shows where it came from, so you can check it.
Data extraction is the other side of document AI: the tool reads an invoice, a delivery note or a form and pulls out the useful details, such as supplier, date, amounts or references, to file them in a spreadsheet or your accounting software.
Searching your documents with AI: examples by profession
Whether you run a practice in Bastia, a local authority in Haute-Corse or a shop elsewhere in Corsica, the principle is the same: your documents become a source of answers.
- 01
Professional practices
Find a clause across hundreds of contracts, compare versions, summarise a file before a meeting, always with a link back to the original document.
- 02
Trades and construction
Query technical data sheets, manuals and in-house rules from the job, or look up the details of past work for a client.
- 03
Retail and distribution
Extract data from supplier invoices and delivery notes, match orders against deliveries, flag discrepancies.
- 04
Tourism and hospitality
Give staff quick access to procedures, supplier contracts and safety instructions, in several languages if needed.
- 05
Local authorities
Search council decisions, orders and by-laws, or help officers find the rules that apply to a resident's request.
- 06
Healthcare administration
Sort incoming post and find administrative documents, in a setting where the confidentiality of health data calls for extra precautions.
Extracting data from invoices and administrative documents
Retyping invoices is the classic example of work that adds no value. The tool receives documents by email or in a folder, recognises what type they are, reads the text, even from a scan or a photo, and extracts the fields you need.
The extracted data is then checked automatically: a total that does not match the sum of the lines, a malformed VAT number or an unknown supplier is flagged. Doubtful cases are set aside for a person to check rather than being recorded blindly, and the rest goes to your spreadsheet or software.
The same approach works for purchase orders, forms, statements and supporting documents.
How document AI saves you time
- 01
Find instead of search
A question in plain language replaces trawling through folders and guessing keywords.
- 02
Less retyping
Invoice and form data lands in your tools without being keyed in again, with fewer errors.
- 03
Shared know-how
What an experienced colleague knows, once written down, becomes available to the whole team.
- 04
Answers you can verify
Each answer points back to the original passage, so the interpretation stays with you.
How we set up your document AI
- 01
Understand
Which documents, how many, in what formats, who needs access, which questions keep coming up? We agree the goals, budget and timeline with you.
- 02
Design
We decide where documents will be processed and stored, how existing access rights will be respected and what the tool will look like. Mock-ups are approved by you before development.
- 03
Build
We prepare and index the documents, build the tool and measure answer quality against a set of questions whose correct answers you already know. You follow progress throughout.
- 04
Launch and support
Go-live, hosting, maintenance. New documents are added as they arrive and the tool is improved based on your feedback.
Answer quality, access rights and confidentiality
- 01
Source quality
A RAG tool is only as good as your documents. Outdated or contradictory versions produce muddled answers, so some tidying up is often needed first.
- 02
Access rights
No one should obtain through the AI information they would not be allowed to open directly. Rights are therefore enforced at search time.
- 03
Verification
Answers cite their sources, and the tool must say when it finds nothing rather than improvise.
- 04
Confidentiality
Depending on how sensitive they are, documents can be processed by an online provider with suitable commitments or stay with you, on an AI server installed on your premises. GDPR applies either way.
What affects the cost of a RAG project
- 01
Volume and variety of documents
A few hundred consistent pages, or entire archives in mixed formats.
- 02
State of the sources
Clean digital files are easier to process than poor scans, handwriting or complex tables.
- 03
Connections
Shared drive, email, management software: each source or destination to connect takes work.
- 04
Hosting and level of control
Online service or local AI, fine-grained permissions, automatic checks and human review.
Technologies and methods
- RAG
- Large language models (LLM)
- Text recognition (OCR)
- Semantic search
- TypeScript
- Node.js
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between RAG and ChatGPT?
A consumer assistant answers from what it has learnt in general. A RAG tool answers from your documents, cites its sources and ignores anything not in them. The underlying language model can be the same; what changes is how it is used.
Can AI read scanned documents?
Yes. Text recognition can read most scans and photos of documents. Results depend on image quality: a sharp scan works better than a blurred photo or handwriting.
Will my documents be used to train a model?
Not in a RAG system: your documents are consulted when a question is asked, not built into the model. We also check the chosen provider's data-use terms, or work with a local AI that sends nothing outside.
Can we add documents after launch?
Yes. New documents and new versions are added as you go, automatically or on request. In fact, this is essential if answers are to stay accurate.
Does invoice extraction work with my accounting software?
Extracted data can be sent to a spreadsheet or to any software that accepts data imports. We check with you, from our first conversation, what yours allows.