For decades, email has been the go-to method for digital communication, connecting people across the globe. But what if emails could do more than just sit in inboxes? What if Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) could step in and truly understand them? That’s exactly the question our Taskforce posed one day:

“What if we could extract the intent and information from emails using A.I.?”

Intrigued by the idea, we decided to dive in and test it out through a Proof of Concept (POC). If you’re not familiar with the term, think of a POC like testing out a cool new idea before fully committing. Imagine you’ve got a wild idea for a gadget, app, or tool—but before pouring in months of work or a mountain of money, you create a quick and simple version to see if it even works. That’s what a POC is: a rough draft for innovation.

We teamed up with the third-party specialists from Reshaped and teamleads from the NL Ferro Alloys & Minor Metals department to see what could be achieved in just four weeks. The mission? To use A.I. to “peel down” emails—breaking them apart and extracting critical information, like material delivery requests.

The results? A resounding success. This POC proved that A.I. could seamlessly handle data extraction from emails, cutting through clutter and delivering clarity. With this success in hand, we’re now gearing up for the next phase: launching a full-fledged project to integrate these learnings into our core processes.Our ultimate goal? To simplify and automate data entry, with email as the cornerstone of a more efficient future. In the upcoming weeks we are designing this new foundational model. Stay tuned, as we will be sharing more news on this in the near future!