Natural Language In. Boolean Search Out.
Boolean search has always been a skill. A real one. Knowing how to structure a query, which proximity operators to use, when to exclude a term so you don't surface three million documents instead of three hundred: that takes training, practice, and a kind of lateral thinking most people don't develop by accident. It's why eDiscovery teams have specialists whose entire job is building and refining searches before a single attorney ever opens a document.
That's about to change.
Introducing Natural Language Boolean Search
With Fileread's latest release, you can now describe what you're looking for in plain English. The platform translates it into a structured boolean query and executes it for you.
Type something like "emails between Sarah and outside counsel about the merger negotiations" and Fileread's intent layer converts that into boolean search syntax, generates multiple structured strategies from your input, and surfaces them for your review. Each strategy comes with a description of what it's doing and what it's looking for. You can browse them, run them, compare results, and save the ones that work.
No syntax. No operators to memorize. No iterating for four hours on a query that still returns too many documents.
The feature works in two directions. If you know your way around boolean syntax and want to write a query directly, Fileread will recognize it and execute it as-is. If you don't, plain English gets you to the same place. Either way, the system will identify your query type (including DT search, which litigators will recognize immediately) and recommend additional strategies alongside it.
The result is a smarter, faster starting point for document collection, regardless of your search experience.
It Works Inside Insights Q&A Too
This is where it gets more powerful. Natural language to boolean translation isn't limited to the document library search bar. It's now built into Insights Q&A as well.
Ask something like: "In the emails between the CFO and general counsel between March and June, what reasons did they give for proceeding with the sale?" Fileread parses that question, constructs the boolean query behind the scenes (custodians, date ranges, relationship operators and all), executes it against the relevant dataset, and then answers your question based on the results it finds.
You're not searching and then reading. You're asking and getting an answer, with the search happening automatically in between. The translation from plain English into precise boolean logic is what makes that possible.
Also in This Release: Matter Intelligence Updates
Matter Intelligence now includes a first-run onboarding tour so new users can understand what it's doing from the moment they open it. The feature injects a case-specific summary into every query you run, giving the AI the context it needs to return answers that are relevant to your matter, not just technically accurate.
Think of it this way: you can ask any attorney a question and get a competent legal response. But if you ask an attorney who has been on your case from day one, the answer is going to be a lot more useful. That's what Matter Intelligence is doing behind the scenes.
This release also makes it easier to see exactly which documents are contributing to that context at any given moment, so there's no guessing about what the system knows when you ask a question.
What This Means for Litigators and Legal Teams
Boolean search has always required a specialist. This release removes that dependency. Describe what you need and Fileread builds the query, generating multiple strategies so your team can focus on reviewing documents instead of constructing searches. The same translation happens inside Insights Q&A, turning a plain English question into a precise boolean query and returning an answer in one step.
Fileread's Natural Language Boolean Search and Matter Intelligence updates are available now. Reach out to your account contact to learn more.
Media Contact: Chan Koh info@fileread.com
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