Unlocking the Power of Workflow Automation: From Ghost Content to Intelligent Automation 

Ghost Content to Intelligent Workflows

Ghost content refers to the data your organization technically owns but can’t find or use effectively — or may not even realize exists. The first step in unlocking the potential of your ghost content is to turn it into structured data.  

After uncovering ghost content, and extracting and structuring it with a content management system, you can leverage that data for impactful business process automation. Process automation ensures that valuable information doesn’t just sit in a repository but actively drives productivity.  

Why Intelligent Workflow Automation Matters After Unlocking Your Data 

Strategically, automating process is a natural step after uncovering ghost content. Not only can you leverage AI to structure and classify your ghost content but this structured data is the foundation for meaningful automation. With AI-powered workflows working to not only structure your ghost content, but can also enable workflow automation to reduce the time and effort employees spend on repetitive tasks or even outdated or disparate automation processes.  The benefits of intelligent workflow automation are significant: you can streamline your workflows, improve accuracy  improve your compliance and audit readiness, increase your operation visibility and transparency, and empower your employees to focus on higher-value work.  

With Laserfiche, these advantages are amplified; workflows are scalable, secure and accessible from anywhere, enabling enterprise-wide workflow automation that connects teams and systems seamlessly. Once you transform insight into action, you can harness the value hidden in your data to drive real results across the organization.  

The Three Key Areas Where Automated Workflows Drive Impact 

Automated workflows don’t just save time; they transform the way work gets done across an organization. By streamlining processes in the right areas, businesses can maximize efficiency, accuracy, and insight-driven decision-making. Three key areas where automated workflows drive impact are:  

1. Repetitive, manual operational tasks 

Tasks like data entry or routine approvals are prime candidates for automation. By letting workflows handle these processes, you can free employees from tedious work, reduce errors and run processes faster and more consistently. 

2. Cross-functional or siloed workflows 

Workflows that span departments or teams often get slowed down by handoffs, miscommunication or siloed information. Automating these processes ensures smooth coordination, visibility into progress, and accountability, making it easier to achieve enterprise-wide alignment and efficiency. 

3. Unstructured workflows 

Even workflows that rely on unstructured or semi-structured data, like documents, emails, or scanned forms, can be automated. Laserfiche, combined with AI-powered tools like Smart Chat, enables natural language querying of content, allowing automated decision-making and reporting, so you can act on insights quickly and accurately. 

How Automation Transforms Data into Actionable Workflows 

Process automation brings the value of structured data to life. Once information is organized, employees no longer need to spend time and effort extracting data to access what they need; automation does the heavy lifting.  

At the heart of this transformation is intelligent orchestration, a holistic approach that integrates enterprise processes, data, technology and operations into one connected ecosystem. Like a conductor leading an orchestra, intelligent orchestration ensures every part of the business moves in sync, harmonizing data and workflows to deliver consistent, high-quality outcomes. By integrating processes and data intelligently, organizations can deliver personalized customer experiences efficiently and at scale. This allows organizations to not only meet customer needs in the moment but anticipate them, ensuring every interaction is relevant and engaging. 

AI-powered tools within Laserfiche, like Smart Fields and Smart Chat, make this even more powerful. Smart Fields intelligently extracts information from documents, regardless of the document’s source or format, while Smart Chat delivers information and insights directly through natural language querying, so that employees can quickly receive concise and tailored responses.  

This combination of automation and AI allows organizations to move faster and make smarter decisions without requiring deep technical expertise. This impact spans every department.  

  • Legal teams can automate contract reviews and approvals; 
  • Finance departments can streamline purchase orders and quarterly reporting 
  • Engineering and project teams can ensure documents move smoothly through revisions 

Across the enterprise, employees spend less time on manual work, teams collaborate seamlessly, executives gain visibility, and the organization scales more effectively.  

Ultimately, intelligent orchestration transforms structured data into synchronized action.  

The Path Ahead: From Insight to Impact 

The journey from uncovering ghost content to achieving intelligent workflow automation represents a complete transformation in how organizations manage information. It begins with bringing hidden or unstructured data to light, using AI tools to structure information into usable, actionable insights, and finally, using process automation to turn those insights into positive benefits for your organization. 

With Laserfiche, this transformation is not only achievable but scalable. Cloud-based, AI-enabled automation makes it possible for organizations to access, manage and act on information from anywhere. What was once hidden or siloed becomes part of a unified and strategic system that drives productivity, transparency and innovation. 

Learn more about AI’s impact on information management best practices and how to extract more insight from your data now by watching on-demand.

Laserfiche Expands AI Data Capture with Auto-Classification to Transform Data into Business Intelligence

New intelligent features automatically organize and classify documents, transforming how organizations manage information at scale.

LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA, Jan. 28, 2026Laserfiche — the leading SaaS provider of intelligent content management — today announced major enhancements to its AI-powered data extraction tool, Smart Fields. The update introduces automated document classification and tagging, allowing organizations to move from unstructured content to informed decisions in seconds.

Using natural language prompts instead of rigid, ruled-based OCR, Smart Fields can now identify document type — such as invoices, taxpayer identification forms, or student transcripts — and automatically apply the correct metadata template using AI. Users can also use Smart Fields to automatically add informational and security tags to files that meet certain criteria, defined using a natural language prompt. Users can capture key details, route documents, and apply the proper metadata tags instantly and at scale.

“Success in today’s AI-driven landscape is defined by speed to insight,” said Michael Allen, chief technology officer at Laserfiche. “By using AI in Laserfiche content management, we are transforming organizations’ digital repositories into active engines for business intelligence. Smart Fields allows users to bypass the friction of manual data entry, saving time for more high-value decision-making.”

Redefining Document Capture for the AI Era

Traditional capture methods often require specialized technical knowledge and complex configuration. Laserfiche Smart Fields, first launched in 2025, eliminates this barrier by allowing users to describe the data they need using natural language. Key updates include:

  • Automatic classification: Smart Fields recognizes document types and matches them to the appropriate template.
  • Intelligent auto-tagging: Administrators define tags once, and the Smart Fields applies them during ingestion to help organizations with consistent security and findability.

Smart Fields has helped customers capture metadata from content such as financial documents, vendor forms and legal contracts, cutting document management processes down from months to seconds. These enhancements reduce operational overhead and human error, and support enterprise-wide data consistency while freeing up technical resources.

Key benefits include:

  • Automated organization: Smart Fields eliminates manual sorting by classifying documents on entry.
  • Dynamic security controls: Auto-tagging supports both informational and security classifications, enabling organizations to automatically protect sensitive content.
  • Simplified automation: Classification data can trigger workflows, like approvals or retention schedules, without complex coding.

“The true value of AI in the enterprise is its ability to shed light on dark data, or what Laserfiche calls ‘ghost content,’” said Andrea Malick, principal advisory director at Info-Tech Research Group. “By automating the foundational work of document organization, organizations can finally bridge the gap between content silos and actionable insights, making sure that information is not just stored, but systematically ready for the AI era.”

For More Information

  • Learn more about Laserfiche’s AI-powered document management capabilities at laserfiche.com/ai.
  • Explore insights into automation, document management and digital transformation in AI era by downloading the Laserfiche report, “The State of Document Management and AI.”
  • Find out more about ghost content and how it impacts your data strategy in the Laserfiche Blog.

About Laserfiche 
Laserfiche is the leading enterprise platform that helps organizations digitally transform operations and manage their content with AI-powered solutions. Through scalable workflows, customizable forms, no-code templates and AI-enabled capabilities, the Laserfiche® document management platform accelerates how business gets done. Trusted by organizations of all sizes — from startups to Fortune 500 enterprises — Laserfiche empowers teams to boost productivity, foster collaboration, and deliver a superior customer experience at scale. Headquartered in Long Beach, California, Laserfiche operates globally, with offices across North America, Europe and Asia.

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Empower Preview: Introduction to Workflow

Experience it before Empower! Automate repository actions with Workflow! Perfect for anyone new to Laserfiche and automation, this hands-on lab will showcase repository automation capabilities that can reduce repetitive manual tasks, streamline processes, and boost your efficiency. In this training, we’ll explore how workflow can standardize naming conventions on documents, handle document routing for approval and rejection, and create new content in the repository; all automatically!

In this course, you’ll learn how to:

  • Configure automated repository actions like moving and renaming documents
  • Build conditional logic to automate decisions and direct process flows
  • Streamline processes while learning foundational workflow concepts that can be used to build automated solutions in your organization

Empower Preview: Intermediate Forms Design

Experience our most popular class at Empower before the conference! Take your forms to the next level! Refine your knowledge of Laserfiche Forms and Business Processes with this hands-on lab, focusing on making forms user-friendly while ensuring your information is standardized. This course will take you through common use cases for more complex forms, task routing, and automation!

In this course, you’ll learn how to:

  • Route tasks appropriately using various gateways and intermediate activities
  • Configure lookups to pre-fill form fields using existing information
  • Leverage calculations to reduce tedious data entry
  • Enhance form functionality with out-of-the-box field rule options to show/hide, disable, and make fields required

Empower Preview: Working with Workflow and Business Processes (Laserfiche Cloud)

Experience it before Empower! Ready to see it all in action? Leverage your Business Process and Workflow knowledge to expand your process automation capabilities and reimagine your organization’s processes. Gain practical knowledge to help you identify which features to use and how to successfully connect them in your solutions.

In this course, you’ll learn how to:

  • Identify processes to streamline by connecting Laserfiche tools
  • Connect Business Processes and Workflows using input and output parameters
  • Leverage calculations to reduce tedious data entry
  • Pass information efficiently between tools to create a seamless user experience

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Empower Preview: Working with Workflow and Laserfiche Forms (Self-hosted)

Experience our most popular class at Empower before the conference! Ready to see it all in action? Leverage your Laserfiche Forms and Workflow knowledge to expand your process automation capabilities and reimagine your organization’s processes. Gain practical knowledge to help you identify which features to use and how to successfully connect them in your solutions.

In this course, you’ll learn how to:

  • Identify processes to streamline by connecting Laserfiche tools
  • Connect Laserfiche Forms and Workflow using activities like Workflow Service Tasks and Retrieve Business Process Variables
  • Pass information efficiently between tools to create a seamless user experience