concept mining

Concept mining is the process of searching documents or unstructured text for ideas and topics. Similar to text mining and data mining, concept mining involves creating a mining model and applying artificial intelligence (AI). However, concept mining focuses on finding intent and meaning rather than extracting explicit information.

Since documents are typically loosely structured sequences of text, concept mining enables organizations to uncover insights into their meaning without reading through them manually. Software applications have been developed that allow users to customize concept mining functionality and organize results based on their needs.

The classification of documents through concept mining has become more important as organizations rely more heavily on electronic data and documents. When implemented correctly, software applications that use concept mining techniques streamline retrieval tasks and enhance the ability to use stored documents.

How concept mining works

Concept mining can be applied to any type or format of document , but typically works best with longer documents that are hard to parse by hand. Mining models are created by teaching concept mining applications about semantics, context, topics, computational linguistics  and related (or unrelated) words.

The application will take this knowledge, skim through documents and map specific words or sections of text to a concept. Users will then take the proposed mapping and check for errors or inconsistencies. Since different words can relate to several possible concepts, giving the application feedback on its results will make it more accurate in the future.

Uses of concept mining

Some common applications of concept mining tools include:

• Grouping documents by theme or subject matter for archival
• Organizing forms of customer feedback, like emails or reviews, by topic to detect common issues or desires.
• Cross-referencing a large number of documents for similarities or plagiarism.
• Pulling documents related to a specific concept out of a large database to complete a task, such as for research or evidence purposes.