What is natural language data extraction?

TL;DR

Describe what data you want in plain English. AI extracts it without CSS selectors or custom parsing code.

What is natural language data extraction?

Instead of writing CSS selectors that break when pages change, describe what you need: "Extract the product name, price, and availability." AI interprets the prompt and returns structured data.

Approach

Selector-Based

Natural Language

Setup

Write CSS/XPath

Describe in English

Maintenance

Breaks on changes

Adapts automatically

Technical skill

Required

Not required

When to use it

When page structures vary, when you lack scraping expertise, or when selectors need constant maintenance.

Olostep accepts natural language prompts with optional JSON schemas for validated, typed results for all your scrape, extract, and search workflows.

Key Takeaways

Natural language extraction replaces technical selectors with plain English prompts, making scraping more accessible and resilient.