SARA Now Has Vision đź‘€
We are excited to announce that SARA – the Statement of Advice Review Assistant – now includes Microsoft’s Azure AI Vision Optical Character Recognition (OCR) service. This upgrade allows SARA to read and extract text from images, scanned pages, screenshots, and photographed documents, seamlessly incorporating that content into every SOA compliance review.
What is Azure AI Vision OCR?
Azure AI Vision is Microsoft’s computer-vision platform for image analysis, content moderation, spatial analytics, and—crucially—OCR. Its latest API introduces faster processing,, and fine-grained confidence scores for every detected word.
Unlike traditional OCR engines, Azure AI Vision is cloud-native and AI-driven. It automatically identifies printed and handwritten text, understands complex layouts, and returns results in structured JSON that downstream systems—like SARA—can parse instantly.
How SARA’s Vision Works
Any image asset inside or alongside an SOA (PDF pages, PNG/JPEG screenshots, smartphone photos) is automatically routed to Azure AI Vision’s Read endpoint.
For best results, use PDF format wherever possible so SARA can use OCR vision over the document/s.
Because we deploy Azure resources in the Australia East region, all images and transient OCR results remain on-shore, supporting AFSL data-sovereignty obligations.
Why Do We Use OCR Vision?
Having document vision is an important skill for building SARA’s capabilities to complete a full client file review.
Client files come in many different formats - including handwritten file notes, screenshots and scanned PDF documents. SARA needs to be able to process and understand these documents to be able to move beyond a simple pre-vet.
| Benefit | How OCR Adds Value to SARA | Practical Impact for Licensees |
|---|---|---|
| Captures every word—printed or handwritten | Azure AI Vision’s Read API extracts text from PDFs, scans, smartphone photos, screenshots and handwritten notes in 100+ languages, returning line-by-line JSON with confidence scores. | No fee table, or adviser file notes are missed; SARA can test all embedded content against regulatory rules. |
| Validates client signatures | Azure AI Vision’s Read API extracts can check if imprtant disclosure and consent documents are signed by clients.. | SARA can accurately check for client consents. |
| Data-sovereignty & security aligned with AFSL needs | OCR operates in Azure Australia East or in an on-prem container; service is ISO 27001-certified and covered by Azure contractual privacy commitments. | Satisfies client-data residency requirements while leveraging cloud scalability or local processing where preferred. |
| Seamless API integration | OCR output (bounding boxes, confidence scores) feeds SARA’s existing rule engine; findings are tagged “Image Text” for quick reviewer validation. | Single consolidated compliance report—no extra tools or workflows. |
| Facilitates advanced analytics | Indexed image text becomes searchable for trends (e.g., recurring platform-fee wording) and feeds future multimodal AI models. | Enables deeper insights into adviser behaviour and systemic issues over time. |
SARA’s Mission
SARA’s mission is to make compliant advice fast, reliable, and audit-ready.
By harnessing Azure AI Vision’s best-in-class OCR, your team gains deeper insight into every element of an SOA—textual or visual—without adding complexity to your workflow. We look forward to seeing how you use this new capability to deliver even greater confidence and efficiency for your clients.