Handling chat data in eDiscovery is challenging. This paper from Damir Kahvedžić of ProSearch discusses challenges in handling chat data in investigations!

In his article published in the Digital Forensics Journal ERA Forum: Journal of the Academy of European Law, by Springer titled (wait for it!) Handling chat data in the age of the AI investigator (available here), Damir discusses the evolution of the short message chat paradigm and the unique challenges that this type of data presents to the legal field. It takes the perspective of the legal practitioner and digital forensic investigator whose job it is to collect and review this material, discussing the evolution of chat data, how and why it is such a problem in the legal domain and how GenAI can be used to help.

Damir uses the Introduction to set the stage for the rest of the article by providing some eye-popping numbers to illustrate just how ubiquitous chat apps have become. For example, Slack has 38.8 million daily active users which is set to grow to 47.2 by 2025; Microsoft has grown their Teams platform from 2 million users in 2017 to 320 million users in 2023! No wonder that we’ve seen a huge increase in chat datasets in digital forensics and eDiscovery investigations in recent years!

The focus of the article is contained in sections 2 through 6, as follows:

• Section 2: Introduces the digital forensics and eDiscovery fields and discusses how handling chats was treated in typical workflows.
• Section 3: Introduces the first real issue with chat data, the variable formats, and what efforts have been taken to address this challenge.
• Section 4: Discusses the problem of reviewing chat data and how efforts in automating reviews largely ignored chat data types.
• Section 5: Discusses the generative AI revolution and its effect on short message handling processes.
• Section 6: Explores the future of chat data and the potential for GenAI solutions to facilitate discovery of that data.

The 17-page article (15+ pages if you don’t count the References at the end) is a reasonably in-depth article that discusses two of the trends most impacting eDiscovery professionals today – chat message formats and GenAI and is a useful resource for anyone looking to better understand the challenges and potential solutions associated with handling chat data in investigations today. Check it out here!

Image created using GPT-4o’s Image Creator Powered by DALL-E, using the term “robot using a chat app on a laptop”.

Disclosure: ProSearch is an Educational Partner and sponsor of eDiscovery Today

Disclaimer: The views represented herein are exclusively the views of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views held by my employer, my partners or my clients. eDiscovery Today is made available solely for educational purposes to provide general information about general eDiscovery principles and not to provide specific legal advice applicable to any particular circumstance. eDiscovery Today should not be used as a substitute for competent legal advice from a lawyer you have retained and who has agreed to represent you.