The global Intelligent Document Processing (IDP) market exceeded $US8 billion in 2024, growing 14.5% as generative artificial intelligence transforms how organisations automate compliance and data workflows, according to Infosource's annual State of the Global Intelligent Document Processing Market report.

The Swiss research firm projects the market will expand at 16% annually through 2029, driven by AI capabilities that eliminate template-based document processing and enable autonomous business process automation.

"IDP has evolved from a niche capability into a strategic foundation for intelligent automation," said Petra Beck, Senior Analyst at Infosource.

“GenAI and agentic orchestration are not just incremental improvements; they are redefining how organizations achieve efficiency, compliance, and resilience in a rapidly changing regulatory and business environment.”

The technology shift enables template-free document extraction and multimodal input processing, allowing systems to handle diverse document types without pre-configuration. This addresses a critical pain point for organisations managing complex regulatory submissions and compliance documentation across multiple formats.

The report concludes some organizations may delay investments in the near term to address AI skill gaps, refine deployment strategies, and adapt to evolving regulatory frameworks. However, adoption is expected to accelerate later in the forecast horizon. Enterprises will expand GenAI-infused IDP deployments, apply domain-tuned language models and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and advance toward agentic orchestration once governance and ROI requirements are addressed.

Vendors embedding IDP within broader automation platforms are outperforming traditional capture-focused providers, the report found. Agentic AI capabilities drive additional value through autonomous automation and adaptive optimisation that reduces manual intervention in document workflows.

Regulatory frameworks including the EU AI Act and expanding e-invoicing mandates are accelerating adoption globally. In the ANZ context, organisations preparing for mandatory e-invoicing adoption and enhanced data breach notification requirements under privacy legislation are investing in automated document processing capabilities.

However, some organisations may delay investments to address AI skills gaps and refine deployment strategies, Infosource warned. Governance, cost control, and return on investment emerge as critical success factors for GenAI implementations.

The report defines IDP as software and services that transform unstructured business documents into structured data for transactions, analytics, and compliance. This capability becomes increasingly vital as organisations digitise paper-based processes while maintaining audit trails and regulatory compliance.