Exterro Bets on Agentic AI to Reinvent Data Risk Management

For years, legal and compliance teams have struggled with a paradox: the more data they collect, the harder it becomes to review, classify, and secure that information without introducing new risks. Now, Exterro believes it has cracked the code with its latest release, Exterro Assist for Data, a platform built around domain-specific “agentic AI” designed to take on high-stakes tasks once reserved for human specialists.

The company has long used machine learning inside its data risk management suite, powering features like smart labeling and contextual insights. But the new Exterro Intelligence layer represents a shift toward autonomous expert agents that can not only analyze but also act—with traceability and security front and center.

“With the launch of the next generation of Exterro Intelligence, Exterro isn’t just keeping pace with AI innovation, they’re solving problems for their customers,” said Ryan O’Leary, Research Director at IDC. “The agentic approach in Exterro Assist for Data reduces security concerns while delivering faster, more accurate, and auditable results.”

A New Take on Enterprise AI

Exterro’s move arrives at a moment when enterprise AI is being redefined. Mary Meeker’s influential 2025 AI report flagged agentic interfaces and sovereign systems as the next wave of adoption, and Exterro is positioning itself squarely in that trend. Instead of bolting third-party large language models like OpenAI on top of their workflows, the company claims to have built a fully controlled stack that keeps sensitive data in-house—an important differentiator for privacy, governance, and forensics teams.

“Our mission is to disrupt the status quo for protecting organizations from digital risk,” said Exterro Founder and CEO Bobby Balachandran. “While the rest of the industry focuses on using third-party models such as OpenAI as a wrapper for their artificial intelligence, or talking about the concept of agentic AI, we are delivering actual solutions that lower risk, reduce cost and increase speed, security, and control.”

Performance at Scale

The numbers behind Exterro Assist for Data are ambitious. The company says the system can classify 40,000 documents per hour, preprocess 100,000 per hour for queries, and accelerate some workflows by as much as 400 times compared to manual review. Every result, they stress, includes source references for explainability—a key demand in legal discovery and regulatory contexts.

The platform also bundles cost savings directly into its offering, with unlimited Q&A and an included matter of up to 250GB, a pricing model that undercuts vendors who bill per document or pass third-party charges to customers.

Security Without Tradeoffs

Exterro’s engineers emphasize that the system was built for environments where “human in the loop” oversight remains essential. Data never leaves the Exterro ecosystem, meaning organizations don’t need to risk exposure by transmitting files to outside LLM providers. Compliance certifications including GDPR, FedRAMP, SOC II, and HIPAA provide another layer of assurance.

The push into agentic AI also signals how much legal tech and privacy operations are influencing the broader AI market. By embedding AI not just as a feature but as the engine for workflows across data governance, legal holds, and incident response, Exterro is betting that compliance-driven use cases will become a proving ground for trustworthy automation.

The company’s claim is bold: agentic AI won’t just help organizations manage their digital risk—it could redefine the entire process. Whether legal and security teams adopt this vision en masse remains to be seen, but the shift suggests the next frontier of enterprise AI is less about raw generative power and more about accountable, domain-specific expertise.