PwC Helps Multinational Company Achieve Significant Savings with Relativity aiR for Review

How did they do it?

• Integrated Relativity aiR for Review and active learning to revamp a 4 million document review workflow.
• Ran 400,000 documents through aiR for Review to improve precision, gather insights, and accelerate final calls.
• Slashed the total review time by 70%, leading to approximately $1.5 million in savings.

A multinational company recently engaged PwC, an industry-leading professional services firm specializing in audit, tax, and consulting, to review 4 million documents spanning multiple jurisdictions and languages – under tight disclosure deadlines. The usual playbook – search terms and manual review – wasn’t going to cut it.

So, PwC proposed a different option: Relativity aiR for Review.

By combining aiR for Review with active learning technology, PwC developed a streamlined workflow that reaped valuable savings in time and money, all while meeting disclosure obligations and deadlines.

The result: far fewer first-level review hours and faster final calls, leading to a 70% reduction in review time and over $1.5 million in savings. Take a look at how PwC turned this 4 million document project and a daunting timeline into a major success.

Integrating Generative AI with Existing Technology

PwC initially recommended active learning to prioritize potentially relevant documents and establish a statistically supported review cutoff for the 4 million documents. However, active learning alone lacked transparency – it couldn’t explain why documents were flagged as relevant or not. That gap led to high overturn rates of nearly 60% between their first- and second-level reviews, with counsel spending valuable time re-reading documents to make final relevance calls. The team realized they needed to supercharge their workflow with generative AI.

PwC brought in Relativity aiR for Review, pairing the generative AI’s reasoning and transparency with active learning. Together with their client, PwC:

• Used active learning to identify 400,000 documents from the broader population to run through aiR for Review
• Developed balanced prompt criteria to define responsiveness and issues standards in simple terms
• Used sampling to assess and refine the prompt
• Leveraged aiR for Review to generate explanations and citations for each relevance decision
• Designed a sampling/QC plan and clear promotion criteria for second-level review
• Funneled aiR for Review’s insights to the second-level review team to aid and accelerate their decisions

Because aiR for Review provided detailed, multilingual explanations, counsel could make faster, better-supported decisions – with confidence in the why behind each call.

Transforming the Review Room

PwC’s blend of AI expertise and technology-enabled review led to valuable, measurable outcomes for their client including:

• 70% reduction in total review time
• $1.5 million in cost savings
• A vastly improved, AI-powered review workflow to leverage in future engagements

The PwC team was so impressed by the impact that they’ve now added aiR for Review as a step in their review workflows – sending documents that advance to second-level review through aiR first.

"We didn’t just add a tool. We transformed the workflow, collaborating to pioneer the integration of generative AI into the client’s review process, reducing noise, and enabling focus on truly relevant information."
Jeffrey Seymour, Principal, PwC’s Legal Managed Services

PwC’s approach delivered both speed and precision, proving that smart AI, when paired with experienced oversight, can transform high-stakes document review.

The Future of Review Is Here

Implementing novel generative AI tools on a large-scale document review project can be an overwhelming task. PwC proved that it’s not only possible – it’s practical, defensible, and transformative.

As data volumes continue to increase, aiR for Review will play an integral role in PwC’s Legal Managed Services document review approach. By combining aiR’s powerful capabilities with decades of expertise, PwC will help clients meet obligations more efficiently and with greater confidence.