Digital evidence tells a story. The challenge has always been getting to that story when it matters most — before the lead goes cold, before the warrant needs to be written, before command wants an update.

Today, AI already makes it possible to interact with investigation data in ways that were unthinkable just a few years ago. Investigators can ask plain-language questions directly of their case evidence, surface connections across large volumes of digital data, identify patterns, flag inconsistencies and build case narratives — all without needing deep technical expertise.

Solutions like Guardian Investigate are bringing these capabilities into real investigative workflows, allowing teams to query evidence, manage tasks and collaborate across departments in real time.

Here are 10 prompts investigators and analysts use to move cases forward faster:

1. Get Oriented Fast

Prompt: “Create a short summary of what this case is about.”

Before diving into gigabytes of data, start here. This prompt gives you a concise overview of the case based on everything that’s loaded — key facts, parties and context — so every member of your team starts from the same baseline. It’s especially useful when picking up a case someone else started, or when briefing a supervisor who needs the short version.

2. Know Who the Players Are

Prompt: “Identify the main parties in this case and include the contacts they call or chat with most.”

Investigations almost always come down to relationships. This prompt surfaces the central figures in your evidence and maps their most frequent connections — by calls, messages or both. What would take an analyst hours of manual cross-referencing now happens in seconds, giving you a relationship map you can immediately act on.

3. Build a Timeline

Prompt: “Create a timeline of events.”

A clear sequence of events is the backbone of any strong case. This prompt pulls relevant activity from across your evidence sources — messages, calls, location data, documents — and organizes it chronologically. Use it early to spot gaps, identify key moments and start building the narrative you’ll eventually hand to a prosecutor.

4. Find What Someone Said

Prompt: “Find the word or phrase [word/phrase] across all case evidence.”

When you know what you’re looking for, a name, a location, a specific slang term — this cuts straight to where it appears across every document, transcript and message in the case. No more opening files one by one. Type the word and get every instance, with context.

5. Surface Crime-Specific Language

Prompt: “Find words or terms related to [crime type].”

Every crime type has its own vocabulary — street terms for drugs, coded language in trafficking cases, financial terminology in fraud investigations. This prompt scans your evidence for language patterns associated with a specific crime type, surfacing material that keyword searches might miss.

6. Locate a Subject at a Specific Time

Prompt: “Show the last known whereabouts of [subject] on [date].”

When timing matters — and it almost always does — this prompt pulls location data from the relevant extraction and gives you a clear picture of where a subject was and when. Use it to corroborate or challenge an alibi, establish presence at a scene or identify patterns of movement.

7. Find Where Subjects Were at the Same Time

Prompt: “Identify instances where the main parties were at the same vicinity at the same time.”

Proving a meeting happened is often central to a case. This prompt looks for location overlap across your subjects — same place, same hour — and surfaces potential points of contact that might not be visible from individual timelines alone. It’s a powerful early step in establishing association.

8. Check for Travel

Prompt: “Did any of the subjects travel overseas or to [city/country]?”

Cross-border movement, travel to known locations or unexplained trips can be significant. This prompt checks across your evidence for travel indicators — location data, booking references, messages referencing destinations — and flags anything relevant.

9. Spot Inconsistencies

Prompt: “Identify misalignments between [document or testimony A] and [document or testimony B].”

Statements that don’t match evidence are the foundation of many successful prosecutions. This prompt compares selected documents, testimonies or records and highlights where accounts diverge — saving the hours it would otherwise take to read and cross-reference manually.

10. Know What to Do Next

Prompt: “Suggest follow-up tasks based on this case.”

Sometimes the hardest part isn’t finding the evidence — it’s knowing what to do with it. This prompt reviews what’s in the case and recommends logical next investigative steps: additional witnesses to interview, records to subpoena, locations to surveil or evidence gaps to address. Think of it as a second opinion from a system that has read everything.

A Few More Bonus Prompts Worth Having in Your Back Pocket

  • “Identify all names and locations mentioned in [document].” — Useful for witness statements, field reports and any document with multiple subjects.
  • “Identify any notable behavior in the week prior to the crime.” — Surfaces pre-incident patterns that may indicate planning or intent.
  • “What vehicles are mentioned in this case?” — Pulls vehicle references from across all evidence, useful in surveillance and trafficking investigations.
  • “Show me all application or SMS messages sent from the device that might assist in artifacts that will assist in identification of the user of the device.” — Useful to provide evidence to validate the user of the handset as a positive user action on the device.
  • “Show all messages sent to the owner of the device that will assist in identification of the device.” — Identifies potential lines of enquiry to verify the user of a device.

The Bottom Line

AI doesn’t replace investigative judgment. It handles the volume for investigators, so you can apply your judgment where it counts. Every output requires investigator validation — the AI surfaces leads, you decide which ones to follow. The prompts above are starting points. The more specific your question, the more useful the answer. Try them on your next case and see what you find.

Wonder how it looks like in Guardian Investigate? Request a demo →

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