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Once relegated to back-office infrastructure, document management systems (DMS) are gaining capabilities such as automation, compliance and operational intelligence. Fueled by AI, blockchain and cloud-native tools, these platforms are now central to business success, far surpassing their original role as digital filing cabinets.
Vendors are improving DMS by adding intelligence into content workflows, supporting not just smarter storage but also faster decision-making, improved security and cross-functional collaboration. Here’s how four experts see document management evolving — and what businesses should be doing to stay ahead.
Automation Turns Storage Into Strategy
The evolution of DMS into active infrastructure is changing how businesses operate day to day. “We’re starting to see clients move beyond uploading files, to now automating approvals, retention and metadata tagging,” said Lauren Murphy, CEO of Friday Initiatives.
These automation-driven capabilities reduce manual work while providing real-time oversight.
This is particularly valuable in high-volume workflows such as compliance logs, legal reviews and permit approvals. Tools such as Power Automate and SharePoint make it easier to implement these changes with less disruption. Yet, the technology itself isn't enough. A clear governance framework must guide these implementations.
“Structure your documents, automate classification and enforce access controls,” Murphy advised. “Only then does blockchain make sense.” Without those foundations, blockchain may simply “immortalize bad data.”
A Workflow Mindset Shift
Organizations now view document processes not just as administrative tasks, but as strategic workflows.
"We used to store documents for peace of mind. Now we’re building workflows around them,” said Andrew Romanyuk, co-founder and senior vice president of growth at Pynest. One of his recent fintech projects reduced document approval times from several days to hours with DMS-triggered automations.
Automation has even more effect in areas such as human resources and legal, where documents often pass through multiple hands. “If it repeats and crosses departments, it’s a candidate for automation,” Romanyuk added.
Blockchain, when paired with automation, provides another layer of reliability. “One ensures the process happens right — the other makes sure nobody can rewrite it,” Romanyuk explained. However, he warned that the biggest hurdles aren’t technological. “The hardest part isn’t technical — it’s ownership,” he said. “Before you talk code, you need a governance model.”
Blockchain Isn’t a Silver Bullet
While blockchain is often lauded for its security and transparency, it isn't a plug-and-play solution. “Blockchain can create a permanent, tamper-proof log of document activity,” said Sylvestre Dupont, CEO and co-founder of Parseur. This can be particularly valuable in compliance-heavy sectors such as logistics, real estate and legal, which require trust and traceability.
However, implementing blockchain can feel premature for some businesses. “For companies still trying to automate basic workflows, blockchain can feel like a solution for a problem they don’t yet face,” Dupont said. The required changes to infrastructure, staff training and vendor relationships often complicate the move to blockchain.
What works best are tools that align with organizational readiness, Dupont said. “Low-code platforms with strong integration options are helpful, especially for smaller teams,” he said. “What matters most is reliability.” Instead of chasing flashy features, companies should focus on choosing systems that eliminate manual document handling and reduce friction in everyday work.
AI-Powered Insights
The future of DMS lies not only in automation and security, but also in intelligence. “We’re moving from automation in the way documents are stored and retrieved to a more profound level, providing analysis and insight across the aggregate of all documents stored,” said Geoff Webb, vice president of product and portfolio marketing at Conga.
This is already taking shape in contract lifecycle management, where AI evaluates risk, makes negotiations faster and maintains compliance. Expanding those capabilities to broader document types is seen as a natural next step.
However, security and transparency in AI usage remain top concerns. “No one wants their medical records to be used to train an AI analytic tool,” Webb said. “It’s already a problem. Businesses must demand transparency and observability in training models.”
In addition, integrating blockchain into legacy systems isn’t trivial. “Adding blockchain requires a fairly significant foundational level of engineering,” Webb said. It’s likely that newer DMS platforms built from the ground up will be better positioned to adopt blockchain effectively.
Compliance, Scalability and Trust
When automation is combined with blockchain, the result is a formidable engine for compliance. Automation enforces business rules such as document tagging, retention and approvals, while blockchain protects them. "Automation keeps your workflows in check,” Romanyuk said. "Blockchain makes your logs tamper-proof. Together, they turn audits from a panic moment into a routine export.”
Dupont echoes that view, noting that automation “standardizes document handling,” while blockchain improves “audit readiness and reduces the chance of manual errors.” The interplay between both technologies helps companies meet increasing regulatory demands without adding complexity or more work for staff.
Organizations in highly regulated industries such as finance, government, healthcare and logistics are already benefiting from automation and blockchain. Adoption is now spreading beyond traditional sectors. Even in industries such as retail and e-commerce, which weren’t historically document-heavy, digital transformation is creating new needs for intelligent DMS.
Choosing the Right DMS
Before diving into upgrades, businesses should step back and assess their information landscape. “Don’t start with the tech, start with the problem,” Murphy advised. “Questions like ‘What data do you have? Who needs it? What decisions does it support?’ should guide the evaluation,” she said.
Romanyuk took a similar stance, recommending that organizations avoid being dazzled by endless features. “Don’t look for more buttons. Look for fewer emails,” he said. The most effective systems streamline communication, automate reminders and give employees less they have to think about.
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Webb stressed transparency, especially when AI is involved. “Security and transparency in the use of AI are critical,” he said. That includes understanding where and how data is used during training, a topic becoming more urgent as AI continues to integrate into business-critical workflows.
DMS are no longer just safe storage, but also make business more agile, compliant and trustworthy, even at scale. Success depends less on the technology itself, and more on how organizations prepare, govern and deploy it, the experts said.
“The right DMS isn’t a feature list,” Murphy said. “If based on good data, it’s a strategic asset that builds trust, reduces friction and scales with your business.”
Editor's Note: Read more about changes in the document and information management space:
- Laserfiche Named a Leader in Gartner's Document Management MQ – Why Now? — Laserfiche, the near-50-year-old document management solution provider, debuted as a Leader after years in the Niche or Visionary quadrants. Here's why.
- Box Is Building Its AI Agent Vision, One LLM Integration at a Time — Box has been incorporating new LLMs as fast as vendors release them. A look at how this fits into the company's vision of the AI-first enterprise.
- Why Hyland's CEO Says 'ECM Expertise Is One Thing We Don't Need' — A new leadership team, a future vision focused on content intelligence, a customer base hungry for innovation: Hyland is primed for its great pivot.