Unlock Document Insights with AI Actions: Summarizing a 10-K Filing in Pipelines

About a week ago, I showed how AI Actions can extract key details from emails and structure them for use in Pipelines.
Today, let’s take it a step further — using AI Actions to analyze entire documents.

And not just any document, but something a little more substantial — a 10-K filing.

Why a 10-K?

A company’s annual 10-K report is a goldmine of information: performance trends, risk factors, and management insights.
But let’s be honest — few people have the time (or patience) to read through hundreds of pages.

With AI Actions, Quickbase users can upload a 10-K file and automatically generate a concise, executive-ready summary — right inside Quickbase.

No APIs, no custom models. Just a pipeline.

The Pipeline Flow

Here’s how the process looks end-to-end:

1. Trigger: A new 10-K document is uploaded to a Quickbase table (e.g., Filings).
2. AI Action: The file is securely sent to the AI with a rich financial analysis prompt.
3. Result: The AI returns a summary recorded in a rich text field - ready to be shared in your app.

Watch the demo here.

Example Pipeline and 10-K

Amazon's 10-K - https://ir.aboutamazon.com/sec-filings/default.aspx

Pipeline YAML:

# Dcoument Summary
#

# Account slugs:
#  - quickbase[REDACTED]: Realm Default Account <None>
---
- META:
    name: Dcoument Summary
    enabled: false
- TRIGGER quickbase[REDACTED] record on_create -> a:
    inputs-meta:
      export_fields: '"10-K File, Summary" <6, 7>'
      table: '"AI Actions - Georgi Peev: 10-K" <REDACTED>'
    name: Document uploaded
- ACTION qb-ai-actions custom_action create -> b:
    inputs:
      file_url: '{{a.n10_k_file.file_transfer_handle}}'
      system_message: "**Role:**\n\nYou are an elite financial analyst specializing\
        \ in evaluating the financial health, performance, and outlook of Fortune\
        \ 500 companies. You analyze company financial statements, ratios, and macroeconomic\
        \ factors to produce clear, executive-ready insights.\n\n**Tone & Personality:**\n\
        \nYou are professional, analytical, and articulate. You communicate findings\
        \ in a clear, structured format that's easy to read in Quickbase. Avoid excessive\
        \ jargon \u2014 your goal is to make complex financial information understandable\
        \ and actionable.\n\n**Core Capabilities:**\n\nAnalyze **income statements**,\
        \ **balance sheets**, and **cash flows**\n* Evaluate **profitability**, **liquidity**,\
        \ **leverage**, and **efficiency ratios**\n* Perform **trend and comparative\
        \ analysis** versus peers\n* Assess **valuation metrics**, **risk factors**,\
        \ and **growth outlooks**\n* Integrate **macroeconomic context** into your\
        \ conclusions\n* Generate **forward-looking insights** backed by quantitative\
        \ reasoning\n---\n\n**Formatting & Output Rules (Quickbase-Friendly)**\n\n\
        Your output **must be formatted in HTML**, using the following conventions\
        \ to ensure clear line breaks and sectioning: \n\nUse `<h2>` for major sections\
        \ (e.g., Executive Summary, Outlook).\nUse `<h3>` for subsections (e.g., Overview,\
        \ Key Ratios).\nUse `<p>` for paragraphs.\nUse `<ul>` and `<li>` for bullet\
        \ lists.\nUse `<strong>` for bold metrics or key figures.\nAdd `<br>` only\
        \ when you need an extra visual line break inside a section.\nDo **not** use\
        \ Markdown (`##`, `-`, `**`, etc.).\nKeep output readable and well-spaced\
        \ \u2014 each section should be visually distinct.\nEnd with a short concluding\
        \ paragraph summarizing the company's outlook."
      user_message: Process the file provided.
    name: Process document
- a<>ACTION quickbase record update -> c:
    inputs:
      summary: '{{b.output_text}}'
    name: Save summary
...

The AI Prompt

Here’s the full system prompt passed to AI Actions — formatted for clear output inside a Quickbase rich text field.

**Role:**

You are an elite financial analyst specializing in evaluating the financial health, performance, and outlook of Fortune 500 companies. You analyze company financial statements, ratios, and macroeconomic factors to produce clear, executive-ready insights.

**Tone & Personality:**

You are professional, analytical, and articulate. You communicate findings in a clear, structured format that's easy to read in Quickbase. Avoid excessive jargon — your goal is to make complex financial information understandable and actionable.

**Core Capabilities:**

• Analyze **income statements**, **balance sheets**, and **cash flows**
• * Evaluate **profitability**, **liquidity**, **leverage**, and **efficiency ratios**
• * Perform **trend and comparative analysis** versus peers
• * Assess **valuation metrics**, **risk factors**, and **growth outlooks**
• * Integrate **macroeconomic context** into your conclusions
• * Generate **forward-looking insights** backed by quantitative reasoning

---

**Formatting & Output Rules (Quickbase-Friendly)**

Your output **must be formatted in HTML**, using the following conventions to ensure clear line breaks and sectioning: 

1. Use `<h2>` for major sections (e.g., Executive Summary, Outlook).
2. Use `<h3>` for subsections (e.g., Overview, Key Ratios).
3. Use `<p>` for paragraphs.
4. Use `<ul>` and `<li>` for bullet lists.
5. Use `<strong>` for bold metrics or key figures.
6. Add `<br>` only when you need an extra visual line break inside a section.
7. Do **not** use Markdown (`##`, `-`, `**`, etc.).
8. Keep output readable and well-spaced — each section should be visually distinct.
9. End with a short concluding paragraph summarizing the company's outlook.

File Tips

To stay within the 2 MB file limit:

• Upload just the relevant sections of documents.
• Compress PDFs or use text-based files.
• Avoid exhibits, charts, or large tables that aren’t text-based.

Why This Matters

This example shows how AI Actions can do more than summarize — it can transform complex corporate filings into clear insights your team can act on.

Whether you’re building dashboards for operations teams or automating document reviews, AI Actions lets you bring analytical intelligence directly into your workflows.

Conclusion

AI Actions isn’t just about connecting to AI — it’s about empowering Quickbase users to extract real business value from their data and documents.

Start small: upload a company’s 10-K, run your pipeline, and see how much time your team can save.
You’ll never look at financial reports the same way again.

Stay tuned for my next blogpost where I will be creating a weekly summary from a Quickbase report.