Tony Grout, Chief Product and Technology Officer at M-Files

Document Management Is Catching Up to How Businesses Work

Document management is shifting from folders to context — connecting files to clients, projects and decisions so AI works better and teams move faster.

Until recently, document management has focused on where files are located. But that’s changing as vendors are adding support for business context to knowledge work.

The problem starts with how we've always thought about documents, said Tony Grout, chief product and technology officer at M-Files. Traditional tools create operational friction by trapping knowledge in static folders and siloed applications, forcing people to remember where files live rather than why they matter. The alternative flips the paradigm.

"A context-first model changes the starting point to the business drivers, whether it's clients, projects, products or something else," Grout explained. "This transforms documents into dynamic knowledge by mapping connections between content and business information."

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