Adobe Scan uses AI to automatically detect documents in your gallery

Document-scanning applications may be a dime a dozen on Google and Apple app stores, but the one offered by Adobe Systems — called Adobe Scan — promises a better experience for mobile phone users.

The American software company has incorporated artificial intelligence (AI) technology into the application to make searching for documents in your gallery easier and convenient. Armed with Adobe Sensei (an AI and machine-learning platform) and built-in optical character recognition, the application automatically scans through the photographs in your gallery and shows only those that appear to be documents. With this, you will no longer have to spend precious time scrolling through hundreds of photographs to identify the scanned items.

In addition to the machine-learning capability, Adobe has introduced a few other important features. The app now allows users to find files by typing the name or date. The app has also added support for Apple iOS 11's Files application. For Android users, the company has added offline support.

"We have improved image cleaning in Adobe Scan, specifically for shadows and folds, so your scans will look clearer and cleaner than ever before," said the company in a blog post. "Since we launched Adobe Scan in June, the app has been downloaded more than four million times, and it continues to receive great ratings across iOS and Android. All of this powerful scanning technology, including document discovery and OCR, is available for free."

While the company offers the scanning feature for free, customers will have to pay a $10 monthly in-app subscription to access some advanced PDF features — such as editing and organising documents and collecting digital signatures.

More about Adobe Sensei

Even as Apple and Google hogged all the limelight for their work in the machine-learning segment, Adobe quietly joined the AI race with Sensei. As expected from Adobe, Sensei mostly focuses on helping professionals — including artists — increase productivity. The company is gradually expanding the AI to enterprise categories as well. Last month, CNBC reported that Adobe is rolling out Sensei for the banking sector, allowing them to customise features for customers.