What is AI Builder?
AI Builder is a low-code AI capability within Power Platform that lets you use and train AI models without data science knowledge. It includes pre-built models for common tasks such as document processing, text recognition, sentiment analysis and object detection.
The power lies in the combination with Power Automate: you connect AI models directly to automated workflows. No code required.
Use case: invoice processing
Imagine: your finance department receives dozens of invoices by email daily. Each invoice must be manually opened, data must be retyped into the ERP system, and the document must be archived. This costs hours per week.
With AI Builder and Power Automate, you fully automate this process:
- An invoice arrives by email
- AI Builder automatically recognizes the supplier, invoice number, amount and VAT
- The data is validated against your supplier database
- A record is created in your financial system
- The original document is saved in SharePoint with the correct metadata
- For discrepancies, the responsible person receives a notification for approval
Building the flow
Building this flow consists of four steps:
Step 1: Set up the trigger — Use the "When a new email arrives" trigger with a filter on subject or sender. Configure it to only process emails with attachments.
Step 2: Add AI Builder model — Add the "Extract information from invoices" action. This pre-built model automatically recognizes fields like invoice number, date, supplier, line items and total amount.
Step 3: Process data — Use the extracted data to create records in Dataverse or your ERP system. Add validation rules: is the VAT number correct? Is the supplier known?
Step 4: Automate follow-up — Send an approval request for invoices above a certain amount. Archive the document in SharePoint with automatic metadata.
Tips and best practices
- Start with a specific document type — Don't start with all documents at once, but focus on one type (e.g. purchase invoices)
- Train the model — The pre-built invoice model works well, but you can increase accuracy by training it with your own invoices
- Build error handling — Not every document is perfectly recognized. Build a fallback path where documents with low confidence are manually reviewed
- Monitor results — Track what percentage of documents are correctly processed and optimize where needed
Costs and licensing
AI Builder works with AI Builder credits. These are included in some Power Platform licenses, but can also be purchased separately. The invoice model consumes credits per processed document.
For most organizations, the costs are minimal compared to the time saved. A typical invoice flow saves 2-4 hours per week of manual work.
Want to automate document processing in your organization? Check out our Power Automate services or request a demo. We also offer Power Platform training to help your team build flows themselves.
