Businesses Are Still Struggling With Documents

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Finding a document in a pile of documents

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Walk into any major company today and you’ll find millions invested in data lakes, data warehouses, or data fabrics in the form of cutting-edge on-premises or cloud-based analytics platforms. Yet, ask an employee to retrieve a three-year-old contract or last quarter’s compliance documents, and watch productivity grind to a halt.

Grand View Research valued the document management and records retrieval market at over $7 billion in 2024, with projections reaching $18 billion by 2030. Research Nester sees even steeper growth—from $9 billion to $55 billion by 2037. These numbers somewhat challenge conventional wisdom about digital transformation.

The Document Disconnect

“Organizations can now benefit from an enormous amount of technology,” observes Jesse Todd, who runs information management company EncompaaS. “But it is only now starting to penetrate the marketplace.”

The disconnect frustrates industry professionals. Grady Marin, who founded The Records Company after working in law firms, witnessed organizations abandon pandemic-era digital workflows. “Since 2020, I’ve been both blown away and disturbed,” he says. Many firms reverted to paper-heavy processes despite having experienced digital efficiency.

This regression incurs significant costs. McKinsey’s research found that employees spend 1.8 hours daily searching for information. IDC pegged the figure higher at 2.5 hours daily, nearly a third of the workday. Crown Information Management’s study revealed that 48% of employees regularly fail to locate the records they need.

For an organization employing 1,000 workers with an average salary of $80,000, XeniT calculated that these search inefficiencies cost $25 million annually in lost productivity alone.

Digital Doesn’t Mean Done

Modern data architecture excels with structured information. Sales figures, customer demographics, transaction histories, and the like flow smoothly through data pipelines. But businesses run on more than structured data.

Consider the complexity: medical records scattered across provider systems, legal documents bound by jurisdiction-specific requirements, and employment files subject to varying retention laws. These resist neat categorization.

“The biggest misconception is that digital automatically means ready,” Marin explains. Organizations digitize records without considering completeness, compliance, or usability. “If you have missing authorizations, errors, or inconsistent formats, then all you really have is digital storage, not readiness.”

Law firms exemplify this challenge. Staff spend hours handling requests, scanning documents, managing files, and retrieving records. Simple errors like misspelled names and wrong dates create cascading delays. Some matters may entirely miss statutory or proceeding legal deadlines.

Security and Competence Concerns

IBM’s 2024 Cost of a Data Breach Report found the global average cost reached nearly $5 million with professional services breaches averaging $4.5 million each. Law.com Radar reported 40-50 breaches per month in 2024.

The human factor complicates matters. Marin describes employees who, rather than acknowledge errors, allow problems to compound. “Too often it’s not the system that fails, it’s the people entrusted to run it,” he observes.

Overseas outsourcing introduces additional vulnerabilities. Patient data traverses unsecured networks in jurisdictions beyond the scope of oversight. Staff unfamiliar with the complexities of American healthcare misdirect requests, creating both delays and security exposures.

AI to the Rescue, Sort Of

Leading organizations deploy AI to connect disparate systems. The focus remains practical on enhancing human capabilities rather than replacing workers.

“AI will detect incomplete authorizations before submission, predict which providers require specific forms, cross-check data points,” Marin predicts. These systems create adaptive workflows responding to real-time conditions.

Corodata’s 2025 industry analysis highlighted AI automating categorization and retention schedules. And Armstrong Archives documented machine learning improving extraction accuracy through anomaly detection. The technology exists while implementation lags.

Todd sees transformation accelerating: “This revolutionizes information management by streamlining and automating processing. Organizations can reduce costs, eliminate manual record-keeping work, and manage vast amounts of information safer, smarter, and faster.”

Records Management And Retrieval Recommendations

Several strategies can help executives navigate this landscape:

• Embrace Mixed Environments: Physical-digital hybrids will persist for years. Research Nester found that 93% of companies are pursuing digital strategies, yet paper still endures. Build architecture that accommodates both.
• Tally All Expenses: XeniT calculated devastating math: 1,000 workers averaging $80,000 salaries waste $25 million annually just searching for and retrieving records. Factor in error rates, compliance failures, and lost opportunities.
• Connect Rather Than Replace: Bridge existing systems using APIs and automated workflows. Legacy and modern infrastructure should work together, not compete.
• Measure Retrieval, Not Storage: Volume means nothing without access. Vital Records Control emphasizes that success comes from “meeting regulations, working efficiently, and reducing risk.”
• Watch for Consolidation: Marin sees troubling patterns: “Compliance is turning into a business strategy. When only a few big players dictate the rules, the access, and the price, it stops being about efficiency—it becomes control.”

Mordor Intelligence forecasts over 14% expansion of the market through 2028. The sustained demand reflects that data lakes and record retrieval serve different but complementary functions.

“Meeting Information Governance requirements is getting harder,” Todd acknowledges. “More data, more complexity, more regulatory requirements.”

Success belongs to organizations that blend retrieval capabilities with data infrastructure now, rather than waiting for a perfect solution that may never arrive. Those who bridge the gap early will gain a competitive advantage in an era marked by rising breach costs and tightening regulations.

Marin offers a keen perspective on AI: “AI is not here to replace people, it’s here to eliminate wasted time. The firms that embrace it will stop losing months, years, and business opportunities to errors that AI can catch almost instantly.”