Let M‑Files do the routine work
Knowledge work automation is M‑Files' name for automating the routine around documents: finding, filing, passing on and protecting them. Looking for the latest version, asking a colleague where a document is, chasing an approval: nobody planned for that work, and it is the work M‑Files takes over.
What counts as knowledge work
Knowledge work is work done with information rather than with machines or stock: writing a proposal, reviewing a contract, closing the month, answering a client. Much of the day goes on the routine around it, and that routine is what knowledge work automation takes on.
The thinking stays with people
Writing, judging, negotiating and deciding are not automated. Reviews and approvals are still done by the people assigned to them.
The searching goes
Finding the current version, remembering where a file was saved, asking a colleague which contract applies: M‑Files answers from what each document is and what it says.
The chasing goes
Telling the next person it is their turn, reminding them before the deadline, opening access when a document is approved and deleting it when its time is up: a workflow does it.
Four jobs M‑Files takes off your desk
- Find — Ask M‑Files Aino a question and it answers from your documents. Views and search find the rest by what each document is, such as its customer, project or type.
- Write and share — Write in Word or Excel as you do now, and say what the document is when you save it to M‑Files. The current version is the one people open, and check-out stops two people overwriting each other.
- Pass it on — A workflow tells the next person it is their turn and gives them the task. Access and the document's details change as it moves from step to step.
- Protect — Who may see a document follows from what it is. Changes and downloads are logged, and deletion rules remove data when its time is up.
Where AI fits in
Most of knowledge work automation is metadata, views, workflows and permissions. AI adds reading and suggesting.
Summaries and answers from Aino
M‑Files Aino summarises a text document, answers questions about it in the language you ask in, and shows the documents the answer came from. It sits in the desktop and web clients and only uses content the user is allowed to see. Questions across the whole vault are a configuration we include in a quote where you need it.
Metadata suggested, people decide
With the M‑Files Metadata Agent, M‑Files suggests metadata as documents are added. Administrators choose which fields it suggests values for, people review the suggestions, and metadata can be added to existing documents in bulk.
Microsoft 365 Copilot
Microsoft 365 Copilot can work with M‑Files documents and respects M‑Files permissions, through Microsoft 365 storage or the M‑Files Copilot connector, for people with a Copilot licence.
See where every piece of work stands
Every document, project or case carries its stage, so one list shows what is planned, under way and finished. Each stage can notify someone, hand out a task, open up access or update the record.
- A sales opportunity, for example — In a CRM on M‑Files, an opportunity moves from Lead to Qualified to Closed as won or Closed as lost, and access rights can hold a lead back from the wider sales team until it is qualified.
The decisions stay with your people
You decide how documents are described
Views, permissions, workflows and deletion rules all work from the document types and fields you define. Working those out is the core of an implementation, and it is the work we do with you.
Aino reads only what you may read
Aino answers from documents the person asking has access to, which is what makes it usable in a company with confidential files. M‑Files states that your documents, metadata and questions are not used to train Aino.
People review and approve
Aino finds and answers, and a workflow sends a document to the next step. The review and the approval are still done by the people assigned to them.