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Extract Structured Data from Unstructured Text

Jan 5, 2025 10 min read

Authorized data often arrives as messy text—emails, documents, web pages, or notes. This guide shows how to request names, dates, amounts, and other structured fields, then validate the AI output.

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Turn authorized text into draft structured data, process it within plan limits, and review a representative sample before use.

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The Data Extraction Challenge

Most businesses have valuable data locked in unstructured formats:

  • • Customer emails buried in support tickets
  • • Order details in free-form text fields
  • • Contact information scattered across documents
  • • Dates and amounts in invoice notes

How AI Batch Extraction Works

Instead of writing complex regex patterns or manual parsing, you simply tell the AI what you want to extract:

Example: Extracting Contact Information

Input Text

"Hi, this is John Smith from Acme Corp. You can reach me at john.smith@acme.com or call 555-123-4567. Our meeting is scheduled for March 15th at 2pm."

Prompt
Extract the following information from the text:
- Name
- Company
- Email
- Phone
- Date

Return as JSON.
Output
{
  "name": "John Smith",
  "company": "Acme Corp",
  "email": "john.smith@acme.com",
  "phone": "555-123-4567",
  "date": "March 15th"
}

Common Extraction Use Cases

Contact Info

Extract emails, phone numbers, and addresses from text you are authorized to process

Financial Data

Pull amounts, dates, invoice numbers from documents

Entities

Identify people, companies, locations, products mentioned

Custom Fields

Extract any specific data pattern you define

Step-by-Step Workflow

1
Prepare your data: Collect all text containing the information you need into a CSV file
2
Define what to extract: List the specific fields you want (names, dates, amounts, etc.)
3
Write the prompt: Describe the extraction task and desired output format
4
Process in batch: Run the extraction on your entire dataset
5
Export structured data: Download your extracted data as CSV or JSON

Pro Tips

Be specific: Clearly define the format you want (JSON, CSV, list, etc.)
Handle missing data: Tell the AI what to do when information isn't found
Validate results: Spot-check a sample to ensure extraction accuracy
Iterate: Refine your prompt based on initial results

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Use authorized text, validate important fields, and keep human review in the workflow. Free accounts include 20 monthly credits.

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