How to Use Frontier Vision LLMs: Qwen3-VL

Vision Language Models (VLMs) like the new Qwen3-VL can process both images and text, making them powerful tools for advanced document understanding. These models are often superior to traditional OCR-plus-LLM pipelines because they retain crucial visual context, such as the spatial relationship between text and other elements like checkboxes. The capabilities are demonstrated by using Qwen3-VL to correctly interpret a document image that would be challenging for OCR alone. A practical walkthrough includes Python code for setting up the model with Hugging Face Transformers and performing tasks like OCR and information extraction.