TAR 1 Reference Model: An Established Framework Unifying Traditional and GenAI Approaches to Technology-Assisted Review

Originally published by The Sedona Conference Journal here.

Summary: For over a decade, Technology-Assisted Review (TAR) has been used for document review in discover, but now the emergence of GenAI has sparked discussions about its potential as an alternative. However, this article explains that that GenAI and TAR are complimentary, not conflicting. It introduces GenAI as a new review algorithm that can and should be applied according to established TAR workflows (specifically, the one known as “TAR 1”).

The article presents the algorithm-agnostic steps of this workflow through a TAR 1 Reference Model, and contains diagrams of the workflow tasks for traditional and GenAI algorithms. The reference model and workflow diagrams clearly demonstrate the similarities and differences in traditional and GenAI TAR workflows.

The article next discusses current uncertainty as to comparative results and costs between traditional and GenAI TAR workflows. It outlines seven key considerations for legal practitioners when choosing between these technologies.

The article further discusses innovative hybrid approaches that involve integrating GenAI with traditional algorithms, potentially involving groundbreaking new ways GenAI might further enhance and bring new efficiencies and sophistication to the process of document review in the future.