Natural language processing has made tasks easier by shifting the overall computing paradigm towards understanding human language. NLP is a field that is rapidly progressing, thanks to the massive research work that is continuously striving to achieve better efficiency and automation. These advancements have started to reflect on the daily lives of people, businesses, industrial setups, healthcare, and whatnot. The very famous inventions being widely used today, voice-operated systems such as Siri and textually operated applications like AI chatbots are also a product of NLP. There are many distinct aspects of NLP currently under research, out of which, one is fuzzy name matching.
Fuzzy name matching
This is a data-matching approach used for matching a string of input commands against a number of similar queries and providing the user with the targeted data resulting from multiple similar search queries to the one he initially typed. This technique is very useful to counter any misspelled words or any typos. Exact matching of the query may only find very limited data against it, but fuzzy matching can also provide search results similar to or related to the one the user searched for. This makes it beneficial for the user to look through related results as well as to find what he was looking for.
Applications of fuzzy name matching
Healthcare
Fuzzy name matching makes it easier to find multiple records against a particular name. The administrator might misspell the name and end up finding no record against it. They have to deal with many patients every day and might have to come across different spellings of the same name. Keeping up with every version of the name is difficult. So it is easier to go for name matching and let NLP come up with every related record.
Fraud detection
It can help identify suspicious accounts that carry out fraudulent transactions. Also, unusual variations of names can be identified to prevent financial losses. This can also be used by the government to match the identities of people against different options. This can prevent identity theft and forged profiles.
Business
In business, this approach has benefitted both sides immensely. Fuzzy name matching can help the sellers to identify their competitors. Users can have a better shopping experience by having more choices not only identical to what they are served but also relevant to what they could opt for instead.
Legal proceedings
During legal procedures, fuzzy matching can help match the faces and information of criminals to multiple possible accounts which gives a better experience for concerned departments to ease their tasks and improve their performance.
Conclusion
Just like every other advancement, fuzzy name matching has its own perks that people can enjoy. It can be a great help to improve access to information in every sector because it is very difficult to find exactly what you are looking for among massive data produced in every field. In such a data-centric world, this technique makes it easier to make beneficial decisions and correct choices.