Under the theme of “Delivering the Future,” nearly 350 DocuWare resellers from 15 countries on the American continents gathered outside of Chicago on May 20-21 for the sold-out, 2026 edition of the DocuWorld Americas Partner Conference. The cloud-based Software as a Service (SaaS) document management provider revealed its refreshed product direction, including new DocuWare client and enhancements to DocuWare IDP and the E-Invoicing Service.
Investments of recent years “are now paying off—and coming together,” said CEO Michael Berger, PhD. (pictured above). “AI, UX, and other key technology-based advancements represent a significant step forward for our product portfolio and reflect our commitment to delivering reliable digital solutions that make a real difference.” Berger went on to emphasize the need for structure and order through stable and flexible digital processes.
Next-generation DocuWare software is an evolution, not a facelift, explained Chief Product & Technology Officer Michael Bochmann. “Software should not be part of the problem,” he said. “People are working overtime to integrate systems that were never meant to ‘talk’ to each other.” Featuring a mobile companion and new AI suite, Bochmann described the latest DW version as “a new experience but instantly feels familiar.” The rollout phase begins now through the fall of 2026.
DocuWare IDP (Intelligent Document Processing) offers tighter integration by supporting both Classic Extraction and the new Gen AI-based Zero Shot Extraction. The generative AI-powered upgrade builds data-extraction workflows sans system training, explained Bochmann. Master Data Matching is a key new capability that allows users to clean up or enrich data from documents by comparing them with master data from other sources, quickly turning documents into usable business records, he added.
The DocuWare experience zones drew substantial foot traffic at DocuWorld Americas 2026.
The AI suite, called Aura, facilitates document repository interaction via an LLM-like interface using natural-language queries. Aura will be available for every DocuWare Cloud customer within new DocuWare. DocuWorld attendees had the opportunity to test drive many of these compelling features in the “Experience Zones” at the annual document-imaging industry event.
Listening to partners
DocuWare is listening, COO & GM Uta Dresch said of Ricoh’s document management subsidiary that now represents the core of the parent company’s Software Business Unit. A new partner portal was introduced by an executive panel featuring Marketing VP Thomas Gröhl (from left, below), Americas Sales VP Michael Gale, and Chief Sales & Marketing Officer Hermann Schaefer. IDP automation and AI tools need to be practical, valuable, and scalable,” Gale stressed.
An informational luncheon presentation was given by DocuWare innovation executive Johannes Korves, who joined the company in 2024 when French firm natif.ai was acquired. Discussing AI’s exponential growth, Korves cited some eyebrow-raising statistics. Did you know, for example, that ChatGPT counts more than 900 million weekly users, and that 99% of Americans now use/interact with AI on a weekly basis? (I “crashed” a lunch table with people from Toshiba America Business Solutions, which is a big reseller of DocuWare.)
To conclude the festivities, attendees enjoyed the “Night of Champions” dinner and awards in Chicago/Rosemont, Illinois. DocuWare Diamond Club partner members include 13 office technology dealers: Applied Innovation (Grand Rapids, Michigan), CopyPro, Inc. (Greenville and Wilmington, North Carolina), DOCUmation (10 Texas locations), Impact Networking (Lake Forest, Illinois), James Imaging Systems (Brookfield/Milwaukee, Wisconsin), KDI Office Technology (Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware), Les Olson IT (Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, and Nevada), Metro Sales Inc. (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Miken Technologies (St. Louis, Missouri), Optimz Global/eGennaker (Santa Ana, California), TGI Office Automation (Caldwell, New Jersey), and UBEO Business Services (national dealer with HQ in Austin, Texas).
Wisconsin-based dealer/integrator James Imaging Systems exhbited at #DocuWorld2026 Americas in Chicago, represented by Solutions Engineer Adam Grissom.
DocuWare by the Numbers
Berger shared some statistics. DocuWare now has:
- 800 employees
- 21,000 customers worldwide
- nearly 800 global partners
Partner ACDI exhibited at DocuWare’s #DocuWorld2026 Americas conference in Chicago. DX Product Manager Mark Camper talks with interested prospects.
The DocuWare “experience zones” were quite popular during break times.
