Interpath Accelerates Early Case Insight with aiR Assist

How conversational AI helped investigators surface critical evidence – including a several-year-old smoking gun – in minutes.

• Conversationally explored more than 30,000 documents tied to a group of provisional liquidations associated with an alleged large-scale fraud.
• Surfaced critical evidence and investigative connections in minutes using aiR Assist during the preparation of routine investigative correspondence. The approach uncovered an email from several years earlier that directly supported their case.
• Asked plain-language questions that uncovered a single email disproving claims made by external counsel – a document that traditional keyword search would have taken a disproportionate amount of time to uncover and may never have found.
• Rapidly identified entities, bank account information, business activity, and the physical location of books and records.

The Challenge: Finding Critical Evidence with a Ticking Clock

When Interpath was appointed in respect of a complex and multi-jurisdictional fraud investigation and asset seizure, time was not on their side.

The team needed to rapidly identify the most important evidence from a sizeable, and largely unstructured data set – under active investigative deadlines and with the potential risk of asset dissipation looming.

The lack of information provided by the companies’ former management/directors required that the Joint Provisional Liquidators (JPLs) needed to identify assets to preserve value, in accordance with their mandate, particularly given the potential for value destruction. Approximately 31,000 documents were provided (90k prior to deduplication), but much of the material was expected to be irrelevant to the investigation’s immediate priorities: identify assets owned by the companies, locate associated entities and individuals of interest, and understand wider business activity connected to the case.

Interpath needed a faster way to find meaningful insight – before the window closed.

The Solution: Conversationally Exploring the Data with aiR Assist

To accelerate their path to early case insights, Interpath turned to aiR Assist.

Investigators were able to immediately start exploring the data set conversationally — asking natural-language questions and rapidly following investigative threads as they emerged.

“It is the easiest tool to use in the history of Relativity,” said Gina Bieber, Director at Interpath. “You just ask it a question, and it answers.”

The approach proved especially valuable when investigators identified a useful document but needed broader context fast.

“With aiR Assist, we can ask natural questions of the data and surface critical evidence and actionable answers in minutes – work that would have taken far longer using traditional search methods,” said Max Jackson, Associate Director at Interpath. “aiR Assist makes deep investigations far more efficient.”

The Results: Surfacing Actionable Answers in Minutes

Using aiR Assist, Interpath rapidly surfaced critical evidence across the matter, including a discovery that changed the course of the wider investigation.

After a law firm asserted it had no prior involvement with a particular client, Interpath used aiR Assist alongside Relativity aiR for Review to ask targeted questions of the data set for contradictory examples. The answer came in the form of a single email from several years earlier – one that directly disproved the claim and may never have surfaced using conventional keyword searching.

“It would not have been possible or feasible to search the entire database of documents in this way before to check such a small but crucial assertion during correspondence,” said Paul Pretlove, Global Head of Financial Services Restructuring at Interpath.

aiR surfaced additional evidence across the matter, including:

• Documents containing specific bank account information tied to entities of interest
• Materials relating to previously unidentified entities
• Records detailing company business activities
• Evidence showing certain categories of documents had not been provided by parties that were in their control
• Information confirming the physical location of books and records

In another example, the team identified a single document confirming why a company had been struck off the registry. Using aiR Assist, the document was surfaced almost instantly – a process Interpath estimated would likely have taken at least 30-45 minutes using traditional search methods given the number of search term results.

Creating a Competitive Advantage Through Earlier Insight

Today, Interpath incorporates aiR Assist into investigative and other workflows and client pitches across matters, viewing the technology as a core differentiator in helping clients move faster through increasingly data-intensive investigations.

“Some might say I am evangelical about aiR Assist, but it really is the simplest tool that gives you the biggest results,” said Gina. “It is the definitive bang for your buck, and I incorporate it into all my pitches. I don’t see any reason not to use it.”

Interpath says aiR Assist has helped differentiate the firm competitively and has directly influenced client decisions and accelerated deals.

“The real ‘wow’ moment with aiR Assist is wondering how we ever worked without it,” Gina added. “It’s not a question of whether a project should have aiR Assist – it’s why it doesn’t already.”