Your app currently calls the prebuilt Business Card model v2.1. In v2.1, the platform does not provide QR/barcode interpretation. Support for decoding barcodes (including QR codes) was introduced with the v3.x API family as an add-on capability ( ocr.barcode ) that you can enable on analysis requests in API versions 2023-07-31 (GA) and later. Therefore, the first step is to upgrade from v2.1 to v3.0 so your application can use the newer API surface that supports barcode/QR extraction. This meets the “minimize administrative effort” requirement because you keep the same Azure AI Document Intelligence resource, keys, and endpoint—your change is primarily to the API/SDK version and request options.
After upgrading, you have two common implementation patterns:
Continue to use prebuilt Business Card for the contact fields, and in the same flow make an additional call with prebuilt Layout (or General Document) with the ocr.barcode add-on enabled to decode any QR code present on the card. This is the recommended path because the Business Card model itself doesn’t expose add-on features, while the platform’s v3.x analysis APIs do support ocr.barcode on other models. Microsoft Learn
Why the other options are not correct:
A. Deploy a custom model – unnecessary effort; barcode/QR decoding is available out-of-the-box in v3.x via ocr.barcode . Microsoft Learn
B. Implement the read model – Read (OCR) extracts text but does not interpret barcodes/QR codes; you need the barcode add-on introduced in v3.x. Microsoft Learn
D. Implement the contract model – Irrelevant to business cards or QR decoding.
Key Microsoft References
Add-on capabilities (including ocr.barcode with QR support) — available in API 2023-07-31 (GA) and later. Microsoft Learn
Barcode/QR extraction behavior and schema (barcodes collection, kind, value, polygon). Microsoft Learn
Migration guide from v2.1 to v3.x (why upgrade and what changes). Azure Docs
Business Card model documentation and versioning context (v2.1/v3.0/v3.1). Microsoft Learn
SDK/blog announcement of barcode add-on in v3.x (what it returns and when it’s supported). Microsoft for Developers
Code samples showing the barcodes add-on usage. github.com
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