What is data extraction? Data extraction is the process of gathering or obtaining data from different sources like databases, web sites, PDFs, spreadsheet files, emails or documents, and organizing it in a structured form to facilitate analysis or business purposes. It is important to know whatdata extraction means because business decisions should be based on correct data. Extracted data can be used for reports, gaining insight into customers, automation or business intelligence processes. Organizations may resort to using data extraction tools or data extraction services to automate routine processes. When a company needs to extract data from digital files or from big databases, data extraction techniques help to do it efficiently.