The Precision Manifesto: Defining Extractional AI
Every professional knows this pain: drowning in files, chasing signal through noise, and carrying the pressure to deliver bullet-proof outputs.
It’s not glamorous, but it’s the backbone of real expertise, especially for consultants whose reputations depend on delivering rigorous, tailored insights. Human-led advice to clients always rests on structured analysis drawn from unstructured, messy file chaos.
Two years ago, we were finally promised a revolution for this grunt work.
We were told that AI would automate the hard and tedious stuff: digging through documents, extracting insights, structuring deliverables.
And in many ways, that promise was real.
Conversational AI like ChatGPT and Copilot delivered magically for ideation, rewording, and summarisation. The new tools redefined what was possible and became indispensable almost overnight.
But when deadlines hit and real insights needed to be extracted across 300 pages of client data, a silent truth stared us in the face: Conversational AI isn’t built for that.

Let’s be clear: conversational AI hasn’t failed. It was simply never designed for this kind of work.
And when you look closely, there are four dimensions where conversational AI inevitably breaks down:
Unreliable: Looks right, often isn’t.
Unpredictable: Same prompt, different answers.
Unverifiable: No sources, no trust.
Unrepeatable: Every output is a one-off.
In short, it feels like using a paintbrush when you actually need a sharpened pencil.
To fix this, we don’t need more clever chatbots or generalized agents.
We need an entirely new class of AI. One built to do the work we’re actually trying to automate.
Introducing Extractional AI
Today, Normain is introducing Extractional AI.
A form of artificial intelligence that produces structured insights based on unstructured input data. It is designed to be reliable, predictable, verifiable, and repeatable, using specialized AI engines, purpose-built interfaces, and human-in-the-loop design to support high-stakes, judgment-heavy workflows.
It is built for experts who need to verify every output. For risk teams that can’t afford hallucinations. For compliance analysts who need every control grounded in real citations.
It’s AI that respects the stakes for work that firms bill for, and that experts are hired to do.
Some pioneering teams are are already piloting extractional AI today, with reported 50–80% time savings across tax, risk, compliance, governance, M&A, audit, and sustainability. But more importantly, these teams can unlock a new level of quality and depth in their deliverables, fuelling the next wave of expert work.
The philosophy behind Extractional AI

A new class of AI demands a new philosophy. We’re not launching a messaging tweak, but a fundamental rethinking of how AI should support expert work.
Purpose-built AI engine
The AI engine of Extractional AI must perform high-precision data extraction and apply hallucination-proof analysis. It must have human-like abilities to interpret structure and patterns of any input format that can be considered "unstructured".
Specialized UI built for precision
Extractional AI must feature an opinionated interface that constrains prompting, optimizes human-in- the-loop workflows, and ensures consistent, high-quality outputs.
Human-first by design
Extractional AI should be built to amplify, not replace, expert insight. It should deliver a seamless verification experience, recognizing that the most transformative AI empowers humans, not the other way around.
Extractional AI works in three steps
Extractional AI should be incredibly simple to understand. Here’s how it works in three steps.
Upload your documents: Word, Excel, PDF, web links, your entire knowledge base, whatever.
Define what insights you need: your structure, your logic, your analysis, your format.
Extract and verify: with citations, certainty scores, and human-in-the-loop refinement.

Experience a new type of AI
Extractional AI isn’t just more accurate. It’s the first AI you can actually trust with client-facing work.
Imagine every expert spending their time where it actually matters: driving change with clients and stakeholders, because insights extraction is taken care of.
Every deliverable traceable. Every insight defensible.
Rather than being an operational efficiency lever, Extractional AI is a paradigm shift.
When insights extraction is no longer a bottleneck, a radically different future opens up: one where expert teams move beyond the drudgery of digging and formatting, and instead focus entirely on what makes them invaluable: understanding complex stakeholder realities and driving change through tailored, high-impact insights.
Human expertise and interaction becomes the premium layer, not buried under grunt work, but elevated by it. For the first time, AI takes its rightful role: in service of experts, not replacing them.
This is the new operating model, and those who adopt it first will define the next era of professional services.
Book a live walkthrough of Normain and see the future of work for yourself.