Processing tables in documents for prompt answering

A system comprising:

• a processing device;
• and
• a memory storing instructions that are executable by the processing device to perform operations including:
• receiving a document that includes a table, and a question pertaining to the document;
• detecting a row of column headers in the table;
• modifying the table by inserting one or more additional rows in between rows of the table positioned beneath the row of column headers, and replicating the row of column headers to the one or more additional rows, resulting in a modified table;
• and
• generating, using a machine learning model, an answer to the question based on the document, in part, by extracting information from the modified table.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing executable instructions, which when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

• receiving, by a prompt answering pipeline, a document that includes a table, and a prompt pertaining to the document;
• splitting, by a document chunking module of the prompt answering pipeline, the table into one or more table chunks that include content of the table based on a first threshold size;
• splitting, by the document chunking module of the prompt answering pipeline, the document into one or more non-table chunks that exclude the content of the table based on a second threshold size that is larger than the first threshold size;
• and
• generating, by a machine learning model of the prompt answering pipeline, an answer to the prompt, in part, by processing the one or more table chunks and the one or more non-table chunks.