Teneo Uses aiR for Review to Cut Costs By 70% and Reduce Review Time of 1M Documents from Months to Days

How did they do it?

• Leveraged aiR for Review to drive cost savings of 70% in a 1M document first-pass review project
• Netted immense time savings by completing a typical multi-month project in only 18 days
• Streamlined review decision processes and eliminated inconsistencies by having one “reviewer” look at all underlying documents

Teneo: A global CEO advisory firm at the forefront of AI innovation

Teneo, a global CEO advisory firm headquartered in New York, provides management consulting services to business leaders, enabling them to manage workplace disruption and eliminate barriers to productivity. With over 1,600 employees located in more than 40 offices around the world, Teneo services a number of Fortune 100 organisations and other recognized corporations and financial institutions.

As one of the newer e-discovery and forensic technology service providers in the UK market, Teneo’s London team was eager to gain access to Relativity aiR for Review to deliver speedy results and cost savings for their clients. The team recognized that this technology would help them gain valuable insights, align with growing market trends, and solidify their position as an organisation that could solve complex data challenges in a period of rapidly moving technological innovation.

Off to a flying start

Teneo’s UK team wasted no time putting aiR for Review to the test and pushing the limits of its capabilities. Teneo had a mandate to investigate a number of allegations in relation to a business that had, over several years, created a rather large shortfall in its finances. The team utilised existing searching and filtering techniques in RelativityOne to focus on one million documents. The team then leveraged aiR for Review in analysing those documents to investigate and identify behavioural issues exhibited by directors within their client organisations.

It was critical for aiR for Review to correctly ascertain which documents were valuable in considering the potential allegations and how well supported these were from the available evidence. This allowed Teneo and their client to consider which avenues of investigation to pursue or discontinue, enabling them to focus time and efforts on more fruitful lines of enquiry, ultimately saving the client money.

Teneo was particularly enthused about the prospect of leveraging aiR for Review based on real-life scenarios to fuel conversations and client engagement.

Breezing through document review

To kickstart their efforts, Teneo’s subject matter experts identified key documents as examples and drafted a prompt outlining the case and relevant requirements. Using a combination of keyword searches and concept index searches, they selected an initial data set of approximately 700 documents for testing, which yielded excellent results. They then applied an iterative workflow, expanding the use of aiR for Review over larger batches of documents, using the output of the Quality Review workstream to further fine-tune their prompt criteria. By focusing on documents that aiR for Review initially considered borderline relevant and editing the prompt criteria to better classify documents of this nature, they were able to guide aiR for Review to make more decisive decisions on the material in their data set.

Once confident in aiR for Review’s understanding and its ability to analyse the data at hand, the Teneo team ran aiR for Review's generative AI-powered analysis across the full one million document population, in batches of up to 150,000 documents per batch, to conduct first-pass review. With results delivered at lightning-fast speeds, often streaming in within minutes of kicking off the analyses, the team was able to complete a multi-month project in just 18 days, cutting total costs for the project by 70%.

To top it all off, Teneo was able to conduct the entire project with a single reviewer, exemplifying the streamlined process and tremendous efficiencies that come with using aiR for Review’s powerful technology. Having one reviewer look at all underlying documents created increased efficiency and consistency in review decisions while also eliminating misunderstandings or the need to revisit previous discussions, instructions, and competing decisions that often come with a team of multiple human reviewers.

"For me, aiR for Review plays nicely into our collaborative approach with clients and bringing all our expertise to bear in achieving their objectives."
Armando Nardo, Head of Forensic Technology and eDiscovery, Teneo

Blown away by aiR for Review’s reasoning

Not only was Teneo impressed with aiR for Review’s efficiency — they were also blown away by the natural language rationales and considerations produced across each document, supporting each prediction. This detailed output allowed the review team to better understand nuances within their data set and identify buckets of data not relevant for further review. For example, aiR for Review was able to identify tone and sarcasm within the data set, which provided greater perspective into the custodian’s language and approach to communications.

These remarkable insights helped underscore the pivotal role that e-discovery specialists play in the contextual understanding and analysis of documents that require special treatment, or those that should be excluded from review altogether. aiR for Review’s transparent rationale reassured the team that all important data was being identified and classified — a significant improvement from traditional keyword searches that often result in the exclusion of potentially relevant documents.

The sky’s the limit

aiR for Review empowers Teneo to conduct document reviews faster and more consistently than traditional first-pass review. By identifying relevant materials faster, they can more effectively progress investigation inquiries and ultimately save their clients time and money.

Additionally, aiR for Review helped Teneo avoid gaps in knowledge by providing a cohesive view on the most important issues, while allowing reviewers to add comments and additional context. This has significantly helped in building a robust workflow to solve their client’s increasingly complex data challenges, as well as contributing to time and cost savings.

"[aiR for Review] does what it says on the tin: Provides highly efficient, quick discovery of important issues, with consistent and transparent predictions."
Armando Nardo, Head of Forensic Technology and eDiscovery, Teneo