Executive Summary
A polymer and chemical distributor partnered with Elastiq to implement an AI Agent on Google Cloud that automates entity extraction from technical documents, eliminating manual data entry, ensuring data consistency, and reducing errors-enabling a successful e-commerce launch.
Client Profile
An e-commerce platform company for polymer sales requiring accurate product descriptions for each polymer variant. With thousands of products from multiple manufacturers, each with detailed technical specifications, manual catalog creation was a significant barrier to launch.
Business Problem
The challenge was data extraction at scale:
Document Volume and Variety
5,000+ Technical Data Sheets (TDS) with varying formats from different manufacturers. No two documents were structured the same way.
Manual Process Limitations
- Manual data entry was slow, error-prone, and inconsistent
- Incomplete fields (industry, applications) required additional research
- Lack of standardization across documents delayed e-commerce launch
Quality Requirements
E-commerce success depends on accurate, complete product information. Customers need to trust the specifications they’re reading.
Elastiq Solution: Three-Pronged Strategy
We implemented a comprehensive AI extraction and standardization system:
1. Automated Extraction & Standardization
AI Agent extracts key information from each TDS:
- Polymer type and composition
- Supplier and manufacturer details
- Industry applications and use cases
- Technical specifications and test results
Rule-based formatting ensures uniform presentation (temperature units, test methods, measurement standards).
2. Accuracy Enhancement
Multiple validation layers ensure quality:
- Fine-tuned prompts optimized for polymer technical documents
- Reinforcement learning from human corrections
- Validation against predefined supplier and industry lists
- Cross-referencing with known databases to catch hallucinations
3. Flexible Data Handling
The system adapts to document variability:
- Handles varying formats from different manufacturers
- Cross-references metadata for missing fields
- Uses classification databases to infer unstated properties
Results
The AI Agent delivered:
- Consistent, reliable data extraction validated against supplier databases
- Reduced operational costs by automating what was a multi-employee manual process
- 24/7 automated processing for faster time-to-market
- Transformed unstructured PDFs into structured e-commerce catalog data
Technical Approach
Handling Document Variability
Different manufacturers use different formats, terminology, and units. Our approach:
- Template detection identifies document structure
- Adaptive extraction adjusts to identified format
- Normalization rules standardize outputs regardless of input format
Preventing Hallucinations
For technical specifications, accuracy is critical. Our validation approach:
- Cross-reference extracted supplier names against known database
- Validate numeric values against plausible ranges
- Flag uncertain extractions for human review
- Learn from corrections to improve future accuracy
From PDFs to Product Pages
The AI Agent transformed the launch timeline:
Before: Weeks of manual data entry, prone to errors, inconsistent formatting
After: Automated extraction with human validation, consistent quality, rapid scaling
Conclusion
By deploying an AI Agent for document processing, Elastiq enabled a polymer distributor to transform thousands of technical documents into a structured, accurate e-commerce catalog. The solution demonstrates how AI can automate not just simple tasks, but complex document understanding that previously required specialized human expertise.