OCR · 6 min read
How OCR Works in an AI Assistant
OCR helps an AI assistant read text from images, screenshots, receipts, notes, and documents so you can use that content in a conversation.
What is OCR?
OCR stands for optical character recognition. It is the process of detecting text inside an image and converting it into digital text that can be copied, searched, summarized, translated, or analyzed.
How assistants use OCR
Inside an AI assistant, OCR is more than extraction. Once the text is available, the assistant can explain it, rewrite it, create a checklist, summarize a receipt, or answer questions about a document.
How to get better OCR results
- Use clear lighting and avoid heavy shadows.
- Keep the document flat and in focus.
- Crop out unrelated background when possible.
- Ask the assistant to preserve structure if tables or lists matter.
Examples
OCR can help with meeting notes, handwritten reminders, product labels, screenshots, forms, recipes, study materials, and receipts. The best workflow is to extract the text first, then ask the assistant to turn it into the output you need.
Scan text in Chat
Use Chat to extract text from images and continue with summaries, explanations, and reminders.