# How do you automate the eDiscovery workflow?

> You automate an eDiscovery workflow by removing manual handoffs at each stage - scripted ingestion and processing, rules-based culling, AI-assisted first-pass review, and templated production - while keeping human sign-off at the decisions that carry legal risk.

Automating an eDiscovery workflow means reducing the number of times a person has to move data, re-enter a decision, or repeat a step by hand. Very little of the process needs to stay fully manual, but almost none of it should run fully unattended either.

Where automation usually pays off:

**Ingestion and processing.** Scripted, repeatable intake - deduplication, email threading, OCR, exception handling - removes most of the manual setup work and makes results consistent from matter to matter.

**Culling.** Date ranges, custodian filters, domain exclusions, and file type rules can be applied as a standing recipe rather than rebuilt for every case.

**First-pass review.** Technology-assisted review and generative AI can code or rank documents against a defined criterion, so reviewers spend their time on the documents that actually need judgment instead of reading everything in arrival order.

**Quality control.** Automated sampling and consistency checks catch coding drift far earlier than a manual audit at the end of a review.

**Production.** Production specifications, numbering, redaction burning, and load file generation are highly rule-driven and rarely need a person once configured.

The parts worth keeping human: scoping decisions, the responsiveness and privilege criteria themselves, privilege calls, and final sign-off before anything leaves the building. A defensible automated workflow is one where every automated step is documented, repeatable, and auditable - so you can explain later what the system did and why.

Related reading: [The Ultimate AI-Powered eDiscovery Workflow Automation Guide](/stories/ultimate-ai-powered-ediscovery-workflow-automation-guide).

To see automated first-pass review in practice, [book a Claira demo](/demos).