The New Paradigm of Reporting: When Algorithms Take Over the Reading
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For a long time, annual reports and interim reports have been seen as static financial statements: documents that sum up the past and are then filed away. But we have now reached a turning point where the traditional, linear report is not only inadequate — it risks becoming a barrier between the company and the capital market.
From human eyes to machine analysis
Demands and expectations keep rising, which means reports grow in size year after year. But the most dramatic change in recent years is not the volume of regulation — it's who reads the reports.
We have moved from a world where investors and analysts leafed through a printed report to a reality where algorithms are the first to process the information. Most investors now use AI to evaluate companies, and the market increasingly penalises firms whose data isn't immediately accessible and machine-readable.
The HTML format reduces digital friction
The PDF — whether portrait or landscape — is a format designed for paper. When financial and non-financial information is presented in static PDF documents, digital friction arises. PDFs are poorly indexed, which makes the information hard for algorithms to reach. This has created a barrier to the market, one that the HTML format tears down by making content searchable, structured, and machine-readable.
Here, statutory ESEF reporting isn't enough. Although ESEF is built on XHTML, the information is usually archived in zip files on companies' websites. That's an arrangement that doesn't help accessibility for search engines or the AI agents carrying out automated research. In practice, ESEF is largely limited to being a solution for the regulator, but reaching the active capital market calls for an open, searchable, and link-friendly HTML platform. The reports thereby become not only easier to access for human eyes, but also deliver structured data in a way that lets AI models process the information without noise or delay.
Companies such as Epiroc and Rugvista have recently underlined the importance of this digital accessibility. "For our readers, the HTML format means that accurate and relevant information about our company becomes easily accessible and searchable in an AI-driven environment," says Karin Larsson, Head of IR/Media at Epiroc. Joakim Tuvner, CFO at Rugvista, agrees, stressing that the OnlineReports platform is "a modern way to reach the market and ensure that the information is searchable for AI tools."
OnlineReports: the bridge between AI optimisation and internal efficiency
Optimising content for AI was an important factor in Epiroc's and Rugvista's decision to use the SaaS platform OnlineReports to produce their annual and sustainability reports for 2025. With OnlineReports, the reports are published primarily in HTML — the native language of AI models. This reduces the risk of digital misunderstandings and ensures that the company's equity story reaches, at full strength, the algorithms that are fast becoming a first port of call for research and analysis.
But this isn't only about more effective communication. OnlineReports also delivers significant cost savings and internal time savings by eliminating manual steps in the reporting process, while reducing the number of proofreading rounds and reliance on external resources.
The web-based way of working makes projects run more smoothly, with a far higher degree of automation. Through the OnlineReports SaaS model and direct Excel connection, there's no longer any need to have an external agency set and format tables and charts by hand. A table that previously might have required several rounds of proofreading and back-and-forth with the agency is now updated directly from the source system in every language. With layout and structure already in place, the internal team can focus fully on what actually matters: the content, the analysis, and how it's communicated.
The process is especially powerful for interim reporting. By integrating OnlineReports directly with the company's master Excel — which acts as the bridge to the consolidation system — an unbroken digital flow is created from source system to finished publication. This removes the need for manual intervention, minimises the risk of errors, and guarantees the highest data quality even during the most time-pressured quarter-ends. As an integrated part of the process, an updated, automatically generated PDF version is always available, chiefly to meet regulatory requirements.
It's high time we stopped forcing the information of the future into the formats of the past. The capital market demands it, the technology enables it, and the companies that grasp the shift are the ones that will win trust over the long term.
