Google Cloud DocAI Solution


Google Cloud DocAI Solution - Steps & Services

Google Cloud’s Document AI (DocAI) provides pre-trained processors and a platform to extract structured data from documents such as invoices, receipts, forms, PDFs, images, and contracts.

1. Ingest Documents

Collect documents from various sources:

  • Cloud Storage (GCS) — primary input location for PDF/image documents
  • Cloud Pub/Sub — event triggers for new files
  • Cloud Functions / Cloud Run — serverless logic to preprocess input

Steps:

  1. Upload documents (PDF, TIFF, JPEG, PNG) to a GCS bucket.
  2. Optionally trigger a workflow when a new file arrives (Pub/Sub → Cloud Function).

2. Select or Build a Processor

DocAI uses processors to extract structured data. You must create or configure one.

Types of Processors

  • Pre-trained processors: Invoice Parser, Procurement Doc Parser, Contract Parser, OCR, Form Parser, W9, 1099, Paystubs, Identity docs
  • Custom Extractor: Train your own processor using labeled samples for highly custom documents

Services involved

  • Document AI Workbench
  • Automl Document Extraction (for custom models)

3. Process Documents

Send documents to DocAI for extraction.

  • Document AI API — core OCR/extraction engine
  • Cloud Run / Cloud Functions — wrapper to call API
  • Workflows — orchestrate multi-step pipelines

Step: Your code sends the GCS file reference to the processor; DocAI returns structured JSON with entities, fields, tables, and OCR text.

4. Post-Processing and Data Validation

  • Dataflow (Apache Beam) — large-scale transformations
  • Cloud Run — light transformation logic
  • Workflows — orchestrate multi-step pipelines

Common actions include normalizing fields, validating data, applying business rules, and joining datasets.

5. Store Extracted Results

  • BigQuery — structured analytics and warehousing
  • Firestore / Cloud SQL — operational storage
  • Cloud Storage — raw JSON and original docs

6. Build Search, Display, or Workflow

  • Vertex AI Search & Conversation — enterprise search with embeddings
  • App Engine / Cloud Run UI — document review interface
  • Looker / Looker Studio — dashboards
  • Workflows + Pub/Sub — approval/processing flows

7. Monitoring & Governance

  • Cloud Monitoring — metrics
  • Cloud Logging — document-level logs
  • Cloud IAM — secure access control
  • Audit Logs — compliance