International law firm DLA Piper has launched an AI-enabled service that is designed to detect bribery risks within large companies.

The firm says that Aiscension Bribery marries its legal knowledge with “cutting-edge” AI technology from Reveal, a provider of AI-powered software.

DLA Piper states that being found guilty of bribery and corruption poses a serious threat to an organisation’s operations.

It adds that fines can often reach into the hundreds of millions of euro, and that “the potential damage to reputation can be unquantifiable”.

‘Tip of the iceberg’

DLA Piper says that the total value of publicly-announced fines over the past five years was over €12 billion, describing this as "only the tip of the iceberg, given that many fines are settled out of court and go unannounced”.

The firm says that Aiscension Bribery allows investigations or compliance reviews to be run ten times faster, more accurately and cost effectively than any other option.

It also identifies patterns and anomalies in vast amounts of textual data, and can analyse data in over 100 languages.

Reputational damage

The AI software is trained by DLA Piper lawyers to detect the key forms of bribery behaviour – including the giving or receiving of a bribe, circumventing internal procedures, kickbacks and facilitation payments.

Brian Hunt (legal director at DLA Piper Ireland) comments: “White-collar crime is becoming more common in Ireland, and the potential reputational damage to a business if faced with an allegation of bribery is significant.”

He says that Aiscension Bribery’s power to analyse vast amounts of data frees up time for lawyers to give strategic advice, and for clients to implement preventative measures.