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Valiro AI

AI Document Processing

When you upload a document, Valiro’s AI reads it, breaks it into chunks, and creates a searchable index. This is what makes semantic search and AI-powered answers possible.

What happens when you upload

Section titled “What happens when you upload”
  1. Text extraction — Valiro reads the text from your PDF or Word document
  2. Chunking — Long documents get split into logical sections (roughly paragraph-sized pieces)
  3. Embedding — Each chunk gets converted into a mathematical representation that captures its meaning
  4. Indexing — Everything gets stored in a way that makes it instantly searchable

The whole process usually takes 10-60 seconds depending on the document size. You don’t need to wait—it happens in the background.

Why chunking matters

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AI works better with focused pieces of text than with entire 50-page documents. When you ask a question, Valiro finds the specific chunks that are relevant and uses those to generate an answer.

This is also why you get precise citations. Instead of “somewhere in this 30-page contract,” you get a link to the exact section.

What processes well

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Best results:

  • PDFs with selectable text (not scanned images)
  • Word documents (.docx)
  • Plain text files

Works but limited:

  • Scanned PDFs (if they have text layers)
  • Older .doc files

Stored but not AI-searchable:

  • Excel spreadsheets
  • PowerPoint presentations
  • Images
  • Audio and video

The AI needs text to work with. If your PDF is essentially a picture of a document (like a scan without OCR), the AI can’t read it.

Processing status

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In the document list, you’ll see status indicators:

  • Processing — AI is working on it
  • Complete — ready to search and use
  • Failed — something went wrong

If processing fails, it’s usually because the file is password-protected, corrupted, or in an unsupported format. Try re-uploading or converting to a standard PDF.

The result

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Once processed, your document becomes:

  • Semantically searchable — find it by meaning, not just keywords
  • AI-accessible — Gems can answer questions about it
  • Citable — AI responses link back to the source

This is what makes “ask a question about your documents” actually work. The AI isn’t guessing—it’s reading your actual files and pulling real information.

Related: Uploading Documents for getting files into the system. Using Gems for asking AI about your documents.