Overview:

Optical character recognition (OCR) is one of the most promising technologies among automatic recognition systems specifically used in machine processes such as cognitive computing, machine translation and text mining among others. Over the period, OCR has evolved from single purpose reader to multi-purpose reader along with interactive and device-agnostic system. This has resulted in significant reduction in technology costs, making it among the most preferred alternatives over other character recognition systems. Additionally, increased reliability offered by optical character recognition software has also positively contributed to the OCR market growth.

Presence of numerous companies’ makes OCR market highly fragmented and competitive in nature. Competitive pricing is one of the major strategy of key players to gain an edge in the optical character recognition market. Integration of artificial intelligence in optical character recognition systems has set market to rise, over the forecast period 2018-2026. Relatively lower speed and accuracy improvements are some of the major challenges for optical character recognition market.

Banking sector plays vital role in influencing the demand for OCR software. Document digitization, as a part of minimizing paperwork, is the main factor driving the demand for optical character recognition software in the sector.

North America is the regional leader in the global market for optical character recognition due to incremental demand from Banking, Financial Services & Insurance sector. Enterprises in this region are more for inclined towards cloud-based optical character recognition software due to its ease of use and cost effectiveness. Asia Pacific is also expected to witness steady growth in OCR market, mainly by small and medium enterprises. China and India are at the forefront of adopting optical character recognition technique on account of massive investment in technology.

Major drivers of optical character recognition market:

• Increasing penetration of automatic recognition systems  
• Massive investment in technology
• Rising inclination towards documents digitization

Major challenges of optical character recognition market:

• Speed improvement
• Accuracy improvement
• Competitive pricing

The global optical character recognition market is segmented on the following basis:

• Type:
  • Software
    • Desktop-based OCR
    • Mobile-based OCR
    • Cloud-based OCR
      • Multi-tenant OCR (Private Cloud)
      • Public Cloud
    • Others (Batch OCR, Server-based OCR etc.)
  • Service
    • Consulting
    • Outsourcing
    • Implementation & Integration
• End user:
  • Banking, Financial Services & Insurance (BFSI)
  • Government
  • Retails & Hospitality
  • Healthcare
  • Education
  • Telecom & IT
  • Others (Transportation & Logistics, Media & Entertainment, Manufacturing etc.)
• Geography:
  • North America
    • U.S.
    • Rest of North America
  • Europe
    • U.K.
    • Germany
    • France
    • Rest of Europe
  • Asia Pacific
    • Japan
    • China
    • South Asia
    • Rest of Asia Pacific
  • Rest of the World (RoW)
    • Latin America
    • Middle East & Africa (MEA)

Key players identified in optical character recognition market include but are not limited to:

Anyline GitHub, Inc., Microsoft Corporation, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Abby Software Ltd., Adobe Systems Incorporated, CCi Intelligence Co. Ltd., CVSION Technologies, Inc., Exper-OCR, Inc., Paradatec, Inc., NTT Data Corporation, Google, Inc., LEAD Technologies, Inc., IBM Corporation, Prime Recognition Corporation, Creaceed S.P.R.L., Anyline GmbH, Ripcord, Inc., Transym Computer Services Ltd., Ricoh Group and Accusoft Corporation among others.