Seeing Beyond the Pixels: How AI Understands Images

In today’s legal landscape, images can be just as critical as documents when uncovering key evidence. However, manually reviewing thousands—or even hundreds of thousands—of images is a costly, and time-consuming process.   While images are more common in specific litigation types, they are becoming more frequent across the litigation spectrum.  Some of the measures used to reduce document volume, such as word searches, are not available for many images.  This leaves traditional approaches, relying on human reviewers, who must painstakingly analyze visual evidence, increasing the risk of human error and review costs. 

This is where IST Management’s AI-driven image analysis makes a difference. Our technology does more than just “see” images—it understands them, extracts meaning, and makes them searchable like text-based documents.

How IST’s AI Works: Turning Images into Actionable Data 

IST’s AI-powered image analysis is built for real-world legal challenges. Our technology delivers:

Object & Text Identification 

• Vision based AI-models scans images and identifies key objects (e.g., whiteboards, desks, sign-in sheets, construction materials). 
• It generates text from images, enabling keyword-based searches. 

Contextual Narration & Scene Understanding 

• AI interprets what is happening in an image. 
• It generates brief summaries that give attorneys context—without needing to manually inspect every image.

By structuring visual data in this way, IST ensures that attorneys can find critical evidence faster and more efficiently than ever before. 

How IST’s AI Processes This Image 

Step 1: Object Identification – AI scans the image and generates a structured list of recognized elements:  Ceiling Tiles, Duct Work, Studs, Insulation, Concrete Flooring, Glass doors, Wooden Planks, Construction materials, Electrical conduits, Drywall.

Step 2: Contextual Description – AI interprets the scene and generates a summary:   "Construction work being performed, including framing and insulation installation and ceiling work."

By structuring visual data this way, IST’s AI allows legal teams to search for images based on content—just like they would search for text in documents.

AI in Document Review: A Game-Changer for Legal Discovery 

While recognizing ceiling tiles and boards is useful for demonstrating AI capability, real legal cases require AI to detect far more complex and relevant evidence. This is exactly what IST’s AI did in a high-stakes case. 

A client was accused of receiving payment for training presentations that were never performed.  The evidence to prove work was performed was buried within 503,658 images.  This evidence came in the form of photos of our client giving presentations as well as photos of the presentation materials and attendance sheets.   These photos made up a tiny portion of the overall images, creating a needle in a haystack scenario. Manually reviewing over half a million images was simply not economically feasible. 

IST’s AI-Powered Solution: Using AI to make ordinary images searchable. 

• AI Identified Key Objects & Text: The system scanned all images, creating a list of all the items identified in each of the image files.   
• AI Created Contextual Narratives: In addition to just listing objects, AI described the actions performed in each image.   

By applying targeted search terms to the items and actions in each image file, IST’s AI filtered out 491,074 non-relevant images, reducing the review workload to just 12,584 images—a massive time and cost savings. Using AI Reduced the Review Set by 97.5%

The Results: Faster, More Accurate, and Cost-Effective Review 

• 97.5% Reduction in Review Volume – AI automatically filtered out non-relevant images, saving weeks of attorney review time. 
• Faster Identification of Key Evidence – AI surfaced relevant images in minutes, allowing attorneys to focus only on critical materials. 
• Estimated Cost Savings of $385,000 – Reducing manual review saved hundreds of thousands in legal fees.