The Early-Window Race: Cross-Border Investigations in the Age of AI

Why the First 72 Hours Matter More Than Ever

When a regulator arrives unannounced, the clock starts. Preservation notices go out, devices are secured, and data collection begins, all before substantive review has started. In cross-border investigations, the first 72 hours are decisive: a narrow window when critical decisions are made amid uncertain facts, and organisations must balance speed, compliance, and defensibility at once. The deeper shift is that investigations are no longer just people and document problems. They are data problems.

The Lifecycle Has Changed

Collection and review have separated. Organisations now preserve and collect at scale first, then begin substantive analysis later, once governance, privacy, and jurisdictional questions, as well as more immediate issues such as arguments on scope, privilege, and confidentiality redactions, are resolved. This creates an early-window race: investigators must understand what happened before a formal review population even exists, identifying key custodians, relevant systems, and jurisdictional limits. Those who gain insight first gain a strategic advantage.

Modern Evidence Is Interconnected

Email now tells only part of the story. Investigations span Teams, Slack, WhatsApp, WeChat, Signal, Zoom, Google Workspace, Salesforce, mobile devices, and cloud repositories, and these rarely exist as standalone records. A chat links to a spreadsheet, which connects to a presentation with multiple authors, comments, and version histories. A single mobile device can hold a tangle of business and personal data that resists clean separation, as our work collecting a 1TB iPhone that grew to 1.8TB showed. Investigating teams must reconstruct interconnected ecosystems, made harder still when systems straddle jurisdictions with differing privacy and data-transfer rules.

Precision Over Volume

For multinationals, “collect everything” is increasingly untenable, and not only for cost reasons. Data sovereignty laws, GDPR, regional APAC requirements, and local employment laws constrain where data can move, be reviewed, and be stored. The objective is not to move the most data, but to identify the right data, understand it quickly, and keep the process defensible throughout. This is where having people on the ground in the right jurisdictions matters as much as the technology. Decisions about what can lawfully move, and where it can be reviewed, are made faster and more defensibly when regional expertise sits on the matter from day one.

The Four Priorities of the First 72 Hours

1. Preserve defensibly: secure relevant data quickly with clear chain-of-custody and auditability.
2. Map the data landscape: gain immediate visibility into communication platforms, cloud repositories, mobile devices, and structured systems.
3. Reduce noise before review begins: use intelligent data reduction, including standardised culls and Amplify™ tools, and early analysis to focus resources where they matter.
4. Establish an early narrative: develop an informed understanding of key events, actors, and risks as early as possible.

How AI Changes the First 72 Hours

AI’s value is not just automation but accelerated understanding. AI-assisted workflows prioritise relevant records, identify key custodians, reconstruct fragmented communications, surface emerging issues, and cut irrelevant volume before review begins. It is especially valuable for connecting conversations, linked files, attachments, comments, and revisions across people and platforms. The scale this unlocks is real: in one APAC matter, we worked through 12 million documents in two months and cut costs by over 90%, with regional expertise on every call. Properly governed and validated, modern AI tools also aid summarisation, issue identification, and prioritisation, with human oversight intact. The goal is not faster review. It is faster understanding.

Speed and Defensibility Reinforce Each Other

The myth that organisations must choose between speed and defensibility is fading. Delayed insight creates greater risk, as the longer an organisation operates without understanding key facts, the longer it remains exposed. This matters most when a regulator is the audience. A regulator does not only test what you found; it tests how you found it, scrutinising the keywords, prompts, and validation behind an AI-assisted process much as an opposing counsel would probe a disclosure. When preservation is documented, collection auditable, analytical workflows transparent, and AI-assisted decisions validated, the process holds up under that scrutiny, and process, not the tool, is what carries the day. Organisations gain both faster access to information and stronger process defensibility.

The Future Belongs to Data-Focused Investigations

Data volumes, communication channels, collaborative content, and cross-border obligations will keep growing. Success will increasingly depend on an organisation’s ability to understand data quickly without compromising governance or defensibility. The principles that hold across internal and regulatory investigations spanning multiple jurisdictions are the same ones that decide the first 72 hours.

The investigation leaders who thrive in this environment will not be those who review the most records. They will be those who develop insight earliest.

That is why the first 72 hours matter so much. In the age of AI, investigations will no longer be won during review. They are won before review begins.

If your team is preparing for cross-border matters where the clock starts the moment a regulator does, see how Lineal supported an anti-money laundering investigation for a global bank, or get in touch to talk through your early-window readiness.

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About the Author

Ilan Sherr is a regulatory and AI compliance leader with over two decades of experience advising global organisations on competition law, internal investigations, and applied AI. Ilan has advised global organisations on dawn raids, cartel inquiries, internal investigations, merger control and multi-jurisdictional regulatory strategy. He is Vice President of Investigations and Regulatory Response at Lineal, where he helps clients move from reactive enforcement to proactive, intelligence-led regulatory management harnessing Lineal’s products and services including the Amplify™ suite of tools. Before Lineal, Ilan was Executive Director at DLA Piper, where he founded Aiscension, an AI-driven compliance business recognised by The Lawyer, the Financial Times Innovative Lawyer Awards, Legal Week, and ALM Law.com. A qualified solicitor in England & Wales and the Republic of Ireland, he was named in The Lawyer’s Hot 100 for his work in AI and legal risk management.

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About Lineal

Lineal is an innovative eDiscovery and legal technology solutions company that empowers law firms and corporations with modern data management and review strategies. Established in 2009, Lineal specialises in comprehensive eDiscovery services, leveraging its proprietary technology suite, Amplify™ to enhance efficiency and accuracy in handling large volumes of electronic data. With a global presence and a team of experienced professionals, Lineal is dedicated to delivering custom-tailored solutions that drive optimal legal outcomes for its clients. For more information, visit lineal.com.