There was a day not long ago when the availability of PDF versions of core government forms was a symbol of public sector modernization. Instead of heading to a branch office to pick up a form or having one faxed to you, PDFs could be printed out from a page on an agency’s website.  

But digital experiences — and citizen expectations – have changed. Far from being seen as cutting edge, those PDFs are actually posing many of the same problems associated with the paper-based iterations of these forms:  

• They still require printing or downloading, scanning, and emailing, bureaucratic work that irritates constituents and employees.  

• The workflows behind them are manual, so documents get emailed or hand-delivered to each reviewer down the line. It is hard to keep track of them when processes involve multiple stakeholders and departments and/or extensive back-and-forth between staffers.  

• With no central tracking mechanism, a lack of visibility into their progression causes confusion and delay. 

Why Turning PDFs into HTML Forms Should Be a Top Agency Priority 

Converting PDFs into true digital forms should be a high priority for department heads, program managers, and administration departments. They lay the foundation for better citizen experiences, more efficient government, and true public sector modernization.  

Equally important, PDF conversion is the starting point for complying with the Department of Justice’s (DoJ’s) updated Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) digital services accessibility requirements. PDFs do not meet the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), upon which the ADA’s standards are based. Their existence on citizen-facing websites puts agencies at risk of costly DoJ fines and/or ADA-related lawsuits if they don’t meet the April 2027 deadline for bringing digital services up to date. 

HTML-based forms in and of themselves are much easier for users to understand and complete. Unlike PDFs, fields are not static; they can be condensed, expanded, rearranged, or eliminated as necessary to reflect changing intake requirements. These fields can be grouped logically in headers that likewise can be reconfigured as program needs evolve. Instead of having to decipher a laundry list of instructions, digital forms can present only relevant questions based on previous answers. This ease of use enables residents and staff to fill them out considerably quicker and with fewer errors.  

HTML forms can be processed quickly and more accurately, too, if they are integrated with automated workflows, something that can’t be done with PDFs. Submissions can be forwarded to the first person in the review chain with autogenerated email alerts. With each review, the next person in line can automatically be notified of a document pending their review in their inbox. Workflow automation drastically simplifies multifaceted review processes, in which documents ping pong back and forth between multiple stakeholders.  

Equally important, these digitized forms and workflows can be tracked on a central dashboard. Administrators can see who is next in line to take a look. Bottom line: integrated digital forms and workflows virtually eliminate bottlenecks and lost files. Imagine trying to track a folder that passes through a dozen hands manually. Needless to say, agencies see more than 50% reduction in processing time and error when such forms and processes are digitized.   

From that same dashboard, program managers can obtain instant insights into their operations. They can generate reports by one or more fields. Department heads can see a breakdown of awarded grants by zip code, ethnic group, or income level, for example. Or, they can determine the specific fields that are accounting for the most errors in the form-completion process.  

PDF Conversion Has Historically Been Costly 

If the replacement of PDFs with HTML forms results in greater citizen satisfaction, a reduction in time-sucking bureaucratic labor for employees, faster application processing, and fewer oversights, then why aren’t agencies converting them post haste? The answer is that recreating PDFs in a pure digital format has traditionally been complicated and laborious. It often takes many hours to replicate fields and layouts. On top of that, additional features need to be integrated into the form in order to meet the aforementioned ADA/WCAG accessibility statutes (e.g., adequately sized fonts, color contrasts for the visually impaired, compatibility with screen readers, and e-signatures).  

Many constituent bases also cater to diverse populations and thus must offer several of their public-facing forms in multiple languages. Translating a single form into one language can take hours. Now imagine having to translate 200 forms into four or more languages; a healthy percentage of your labor resources could be tied up in language conversion efforts for weeks.  

Digitized PDFs Open the Door to Easier User Experiences, Streamlined Operations  

Fortunately, AI is changing this time equation. We unveiled SimpliAI Forms in order to empower agencies to free themselves of PDFs and lay the groundwork for modern government without draining financial or human resources. Upload the PDF version of an application, license or permit renewal, benefit intake document, parcel reassessment form, or change-of-address notification and SimpliAI will automatically extract fields, organize the structure, and generate a fully editable digital form inside the SimpliGov platform in significantly less time — more than 80% quicker compared to manual configuration.  

In the short term, program managers can build on these newly digitized forms and add core capabilities associated with the SimpliGov platform. They can use the aforementioned headers to group related fields into sections. Conditional logic can be used to shepherd users to the correct parts of the form based on their initial answers. Workflow automation can similarly route completed submissions along the correct path, even if there are dozens of possible review chains.  

The Foundation for Intelligent Operations 

Even greater value will come from these digitized forms down the road. Those PDFs contain invaluable information about government processes, which SimpliAI turns into structured data that can be mined for insights. The AI engine can then analyze this data and the automated workflows associated with it and make process suggestions. Perhaps the stages associated with a permit application review process can be arranged more efficiently? Maybe another element of operations can be automated? Or maybe the AI engine has an idea on how to adjust a workflow to account for policy changes? That structured data that was once sitting “dormant” in PDFs is now actively fueling the intelligence layer guiding AI to the most relevant, impactful outputs.  

Take the first step toward a modern digital government. Schedule a demo and witness how fast SimpliAI can turn PDFs into HTML-based forms and lay the foundation for more advanced, intelligent operations over time.