can ai builder be used to fill in responses on questionnaires

Question

I have to fill out questionnaires that are sent by prospective customers that come in various formats and layouts - mostly word, excel or pdf files. The questions being asked are typically very similar and so there are common answers that need to be filled in for each questionnaire. I have seen how data can be extracted from documents which is the inverse of what i want to do - can ai be used to fill in a blank questionnaire with appropriate responses. Ideally i would like to have a list of answers that will be inserted into a questionnaire as necessary. At the minute this has to be done manually - because of the variety of documents layout and slight differences in wording of questions, creating placeholders for a search and replace wouldn't be efficient. Is this something ai could do?

Answer 1

To start, you’ll need to extract questions from various questionnaire formats (Word, Excel, PDF). This can be done using document processing tools that can parse different file formats and identify question text.

Given that the wording of questions can vary, it’s essential to standardize the questions. NLP models can help by recognizing the semantic meaning of questions, even if they are phrased differently.

Compile a list of common questions and their corresponding answers. This knowledge base will be used to map extracted questions to the appropriate responses.

Then you implement the AI Model :

• Data Preprocessing: Clean and prepare the data extracted from questionnaires.
• NLP Techniques: Use techniques such as entity recognition and text similarity to match questions to your knowledge base.
• Automated Response Generation: Develop a system that automatically fills in the answers from your knowledge base into the questionnaires.

Azure AI Builder provides pre-built models for form processing and text analysis, which can be customized for your specific use case. Here’s a general approach to integrating these tools:

1. Document Processing:
   • Use Azure Form Recognizer to extract text and structure from questionnaires.
   • Parse the text to identify questions.
2. Text Analysis:
   • Implement Azure Text Analytics to understand the intent and meaning of questions.
   • Use custom models if needed to better align with your specific question set.
3. Answer Mapping:
   • Match the extracted questions to the standardized questions in your knowledge base.
   • Retrieve the corresponding answers.
4. Form Filling:
   • Automate the insertion of answers into the appropriate sections of the questionnaires.
   • Use tools like Word automation in Python, Excel libraries (e.g., openpyxl), and PDF libraries (e.g., PyPDF2) for different document formats.
5. Review and Validate:
   • Implement a review step where the filled-out questionnaires can be checked for accuracy.
   • Use user feedback to continually improve the AI model.

Answer 2

Thanks for reaching out to us, Yes, AI can be used to automate the process of filling in responses on questionnaires, especially when the formats and layouts vary.

Document Understanding and Parsing

AI can analyze and understand the structure of various document formats (Word, Excel, PDF) to extract questions and determine where to insert answers.

• Optical Character Recognition (OCR): For scanned or image-based PDFs, OCR can convert text into a format that AI systems can process.
• Natural Language Processing (NLP): NLP models can be used to understand and categorize questions even if they are worded differently.

Template Matching and Classification

AI can be trained to recognize different questionnaire templates and match them to predefined templates or formats that you use.

• Template Matching: Machine learning algorithms can be trained to identify specific question formats and match them to known templates.
• Classifiers: You can create classifiers that categorize questions based on their content, allowing the system to understand what type of question it is and how to respond.

Automated Response Insertion

Once the questions are identified, AI can use predefined lists of answers to fill in the responses.

• Rule-Based Systems: These systems use predefined rules to insert the correct responses based on the identified questions.
• Machine Learning Models: More advanced models can generate responses based on context and historical data, improving accuracy over time.

Workflow Integration

AI can be integrated into existing workflows to automate the process of filling in responses.

• Integration with Document Editors: AI tools can be integrated with Word processors or PDF editors to automatically insert responses.
• Custom Solutions: You might develop a custom application or script that uses AI to handle this task and integrate it with your existing systems.

Examples of AI Tools and Approaches - Azure Cognitive Services:

Includes various AI capabilities such as OCR, text analytics, and custom vision that can be combined to understand and fill out documents.

Documents you may want to refer to - OCR - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/computer-vision/overview-ocr Text Analytics - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/language-service/ Custom Vision - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/custom-vision-service/overview Document Intelligence - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-services/document-intelligence/?view=doc-intel-4.0.0&branch=release-build-cogserv-forms-recognizer

Please take a look and let us know how it works.

Regards, Yutong -Please kindly accept the answer if you feel helpful to support the community, thanks a lot.