When AI Builder Hits a Wall, Generative AI Breaks Through — A Real Business Case with Power Platform
- Arnaud LG
- May 19
- 2 min read
In today’s fast-paced business environment, automating document processing is no longer a “nice to have” — it’s essential. But as we recently experienced with a client, not all AI approaches are created equal when it comes to handling real-world complexity.
At ProgeSwiss, we specialize in building intelligent solutions using Microsoft’s Power Platform, and AI has become a central enabler in the way we streamline processes for our clients.
🚧 The Challenge: Extracting Purchase Order Data at Scale
One of our clients came to us with a clear need:
“We want to automatically extract Purchase Order information from incoming documents and sync it to our CRM system.”
Straightforward, right? Not exactly.
These POs came from companies across the globe, in different formats, currencies, languages, and layouts. Some used commas as decimal separators, others used dots. Date formats varied. And no two documents looked the same.
🧱 Hitting the Wall with AI Builder
Our first instinct was to leverage AI Builder, Microsoft’s no-code AI model trainer within the Power Platform. It’s a solid tool for document automation — but quickly, its limits became apparent:
It requires 50+ manually tagged documents per layout to begin training.
Each document takes 3–5 minutes to parse and label.
Model performance drops sharply if a new layout is introduced.
Updating the model? That means more data, more training, and more time.
In short, we were looking at dozens of hours of work, only to maintain a model that would need constant babysitting in the face of new formats.
✨ Enter Generative AI — and the Power of Prompting
We decided to pivot — still within the Power Platform — by leveraging Azure OpenAI and GPT-4o through AI Prompts.
Instead of training a model, we simply crafted a prompt that described exactly what information to extract — in natural language.
Within 15 minutes, we had a working prototype.
It handled multiple PO formats, currencies, and date variations — right out of the box.
No training. No tagging. Just results.
As new formats or extraction fields were needed, we simply updated the prompt.
Data accuracy remained consistently high, ensuring CRM integration was clean and reliable.
This wasn’t just a workaround — it was a faster, smarter, and more resilient solution, fully integrated into the client’s Power Apps and Power Automate flows.
⚡ Real Results, Real Fast
In less than a day, we delivered a solution that would’ve taken weeks with a traditional AI model. The client got what they needed:
✅ Accurate data extraction
✅ High adaptability
✅ Low maintenance
✅ Rapid ROI
💡 Takeaway
If your documents are diverse and dynamic, and you need results now, don’t get stuck in the old AI mindset.
When AI Builder hits a wall, Generative AI breaks through — fast, and it does so right inside your existing Power Platform ecosystem.
🔄 Let’s connect if you’re exploring intelligent automation, or curious how Generative AI within Power Platform can bring speed and flexibility to your business processes - Contact Us
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