Q&A: Experts Are the Key to Generative AI Success

Jon, legal teams and law firms are inundated with AI hype and promises from hundreds of point solutions aiming to address legal use cases. Can you provide a brief overview of what’s different about IQ.AI?

It’s no secret that everything we do at FTI Technology is underpinned by the world’s foremost domain experts. They are our secret sauce, and that expertise, which we codify into  our generative AI capabilities, is a significant part of what differentiates IQ.AI from many others on the market. Also consistent with our longstanding principle of being technology agnostic, IQ.AI utilizes the most effective large language model for each task, with the ability to combine the power of different models alongside natural language processing, and machine learning techniques, as well as leveraging best-in-class technology partner platforms, all in a single matter. This makes it possible to customize each instance to the specific needs and geographic constraints of every case.

IQ.AI is also integrated with our emerging data sources solutions, Connect and Universal Messaging Platform, to provide AI-enhanced contextualization, summarization and metadata enrichment of multimedia and disparate messages from cloud applications and collaboration tools. 

Finally, we’ve made significant investments in a dedicated e-discovery data science team, who lead on the development and validation of our IQ.AI capabilities. This industry-leading group of applied scientists pair the power of AI with human-led research, analysis and validation, backed by decades of innovation alongside a world-class security infrastructure. To date, we’ve proven the impact of our approach on hundreds of client matters.

That point about the solution being proven is an important one. Can you speak to some specific examples?

Across all engagements, IQ.AI provides centralized, real-time, AI-powered collaboration for in-house, law firm and expert advisor teams. 

In one engagement, we supported a law firm in representing a multinational corporation following an investigation into anti-competitive behaviors. The law firm needed to know what might be helpful or harmful to their client’s position, as the regulatory agency already had possession of the company’s documents. A specialist e-discovery data science team provided a flexible, generative AI-powered approach and identified opportunities to create significant time savings for the law firm. Using IQ.AI for Review, the team reviewed 7,000 documents in less than half the time taken for human review, while working with the legal team to conduct additional generative AI analysis in parallel. 

This example is just one of hundreds. Additional high impact examples from expert-led client work include:

• Rapid identification of harmful documents 24 hours before production in a contentious IP litigation.
• Reduction of 100,000 documents to 120 key documents in less than one week for a trade secrets case in Australia.
• Successful deployment of generative AI-assisted review, translation and handwriting extraction in a U.K. High Court litigation.
• Self-service capabilities for rapid, in-country handling of an internal investigation in China.
• Insight analysis of an incoming document production at the rate of 5,000 documents per hour in support of a client’s deposition preparations.
• Extraction of data points and classification of 20,000 non-English contracts as part of a Schedule G filing for a Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
• Avoidance of court deadline risk through an approved plan that used AI outputs to defensibly eliminate nearly 1 million documents and a focused quality review to confirm 95% accuracy.
• Internal investigation in response to a whistleblower claim in a matter of days, without requiring significant time from internal or external legal teams, serving as a proof of concept for applying IQ.AI across compliance monitoring and internal investigations functions within a large multinational corporation.

What about privilege review and privilege logging? This is a major pain point in antitrust and competition matters but counsel is often not aware of how generative AI can help alleviate the burden. What results have we seen with IQ.AI for privilege tasks?

That’s right, privilege log creation can be one of the most labor-intensive aspects of a merger filing, second request or antitrust litigation. When guided by expert teams and counsel familiar with the parameters of the case, IQ.AI can classify documents, provide details including the reasoning for why a document was classified to a certain category and extract excerpts from the document to validate reasoning. First drafts of privilege logs can be generated automatically based on decisions about which documents are classified as privileged and which details must be included in the log. 

Our teams guide the tools in iterative processes to revise and validate logs continuously as a matter progresses and provide quality control review of completed privilege logs to ensure accuracy. New developments in IQ.AI include agentic orchestration of a variety of tools to help automate these steps and improve outcomes during time-pressured matters. In a recent second request, this workflow made efficient privilege classification and review possible.

You mentioned agentic AI, which is obviously a hot topic. How does IQ.AI incorporate agentic capabilities?

In addition to adding agentic orchestration and ensemble approaches, we’re using generative AI and agent infrastructure to intelligently automate specific investigative actions. Examples include creating agents to automatically determine key individuals in a matter, produce fact reports, follow lines of inquiry based on human instruction and to look for events or signals that may have been missed. By using interleaved thinking, we provide users with the opportunity to evaluate agent reasoning and to actively approve or modify investigative steps.

What’s the best way for clients to explore generative AI innovation?

Since our experts are at the center of our solutions, and are in parallel working as trusted advisors to our clients on a wide range of matters, many of our clients have already had the opportunity to see how IQ.AI can help them improve speed to insight and reduce costs. In some instances, we’ve helped legal teams run IQ.AI on a matter in parallel with a traditional approach, so they can compare how the generative AI results stack up against the processes they’re more accustomed to. 

Since launching IQ.AI in 2024, we’ve delivered the industry’s first hands on generative AI labs to more than 1,500 attendees across the globe. We’ve always believed a practical approach is the best way to explore the benefits of generative AI. As such, we host workshops and education sessions with our clients to help them understand the many use cases available to them and how to test the waters without introducing risk. The key is in identifying real, specific problems and then working from there to customize fit-for-purpose solutions, whether that includes generative AI or not. 

FTI Technology will be exhibiting at Legalweek March 9-12, 2026 at North Javits Center in New York City. Dedicated data science leaders will host exclusive conversations, provide an early look at upcoming releases featuring IQ.AI Agens and offer presentations of IQ.AI for Review, Antitrust, Investigations and Contracts by appointment and at booth 324. 

Additionally, FTI Technology is hosting the following sessions at the conference:

• The AI Escape Room, Tuesday, March 10 at 2 p.m. ET. Speakers include Jon Chan and Corey Gildart, Senior Managing Directors at FTI Technology, and Nicole Langston, Head of E-Discovery, Counsel at Barclays.
• Tech-Driven Legal Innovation, Wednesday, March 11 at 11:30 a.m. ET. Speakers include Sophie Ross, Global CEO at FTI Technology, Kelly Clay, Assistant General Counsel at GSK, and Scot Reents, Partner at Cravath.
• Innovation in Disputes & Investigations: Three AI Case Studies, Thursday, March 12 at 10:15 a.m. ET. Speakers include Andrew Szwez, Senior Managing Director at FTI Technology, Steven Sheppard DiCesare, Counsel at Huges Hubbard, Ryan Leske, Counsel at A&O Shearman, and Maria Georges, Special Counsel at Covington & Burling. 

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The views expressed herein are those of the author(s) and not necessarily the views of FTI Consulting, its management, its subsidiaries, its affiliates, or its other professionals.