The Production Gap: Why Document AI Demos Rarely Survive Real-World Implementation

This report reveals a critical disconnect between vendor claims and actual practitioner experiences, based on authentic discussions from engineering forums and development communities. Developers consistently report that OCR tools and AI agents designed for ideal scenarios fail dramatically on real-world data, requiring expensive system rebuilds and manual workarounds that far exceed initial expectations. The findings suggest that the true cost of ownership and complexity of document processing automation is fundamentally underestimated by current vendor narratives.