//Monthly advisory seat
A standing AI advisor for the firms that run investigations and security operations
A monthly advisory seat puts one AI advisor on your calls, in your boardroom and in your inbox, for a small number of firms that run investigations or security operations. It is priced on value and results, never on hours. Matt Aubin is an AI investigation expert and cybercrime specialist, founder of Southern Recon Agency and E3 Legacy Intel.
By Matt Aubin, Founder, Southern Recon Agency and E3 Legacy Intel. CDFE, FBCI. Investigating since 2009. Updated .
One person, on retainer, who has run investigations for seventeen years and built the AI his own firms run on. The seat puts him on your side of the table every month.
What the seat includes: your calls and your boardroom, email between meetings, written reports and overviews, build orders when something needs building, and help running AI inside the firm.
What is a monthly AI advisory seat?
A seat is standing access to Matt Aubin as your firm's AI advisor for as long as you hold it. He joins your leadership calls, sits in the boardroom when AI is on the agenda, answers by email between meetings, and writes the reports your decisions need. When the firm wants something built, he writes the build order: what the system must do, what it must never do, what it must record, and who checks its output. Day to day he helps you run AI inside the firm, from the rules your staff follow to the way findings are checked before they leave the building.
Is this a fractional chief AI officer for an investigation or security firm?
Yes, in plain terms. A fractional chief AI officer is a senior AI executive a firm shares rather than hires full time. The difference here is who holds the seat. Matt Aubin is a working investigator who built the AI his own investigation firms run on and wrote the standard that AI findings are held to when they are challenged. He has run investigations since 2009, so the advice comes from casework and from code, not from a consultancy deck.
The standard the advice is measured against is the Evidence-Grade AI Standard. What the firm page calls the three things he does for firms, the seat, the build and the audit, is set out on AI for investigation and security firms.
Who is the seat for?
Owners and leaders of investigation firms, heads of security operations, and corporate security teams. Four firms in particular. The firm whose staff are already using chatbots on case data with no rules. The firm whose insurer has started asking questions about AI. The firm that wants AI writing the first draft of reports without lowering their quality. And the firm deciding what to build and what to buy. Law firms buying AI consulting for their litigation and investigations work fit the seat too. The seat is not for a firm that wants a tool installed and nothing else.
What happens in the first month?
The first month is a review and a plan. Matt sits with the people who do the work and maps where AI already touches your cases or your security operation. He checks whether anyone is recording that, and what would happen if a client, a court or an insurer asked. You get a written overview of what you are running, the risks in plain English, and a short list of what to change first. If a build is the right answer, the first month ends with the build order written. From the second month on, the seat runs on your calendar.
What do results look like?
Rules your staff actually follow for using AI on case and security data. Reports that go out faster without a drop in quality, because the first draft is machine written and the checking is human and recorded. A written record of how AI is used that you can hand a client or an insurer without flinching. Build and buy decisions made once, with reasons, instead of relitigated every quarter. And a leadership team that can explain, in one sentence, what AI does inside the firm and who is accountable for it.
Ask about a seat.
Tell me the shape of the firm and what AI is touching. What the seat covers and what it is worth come back in writing.
How is the seat priced?
On value and results, never on hours. There is no hourly meter and no timesheet. The seat is scoped in a conversation about the size of your operation, what AI is touching, and what a year of getting it right is worth to you, and the monthly figure is agreed before the seat starts. The retainer is paid in full at the start of each period, and the scope states what the seat includes. If the firm's needs grow, the seat is rescoped in the same conversation, not billed by surprise.
Can the seat include a custom private build?
Yes, and a build does not need a seat. Matt builds and maintains a private AI system for one client that nobody else runs, whether that client is an investigation firm, a security company or another business. He never hands over the engine his own firms run on. He designs the system around your casework or your security operation, builds it, tests it on your live matters, trains your people on it, and keeps maintaining it. A firm holding a seat gets the build order written inside the seat. Any other firm starts with a build conversation.
The build is described for firm owners on the firm page. The written check on a firm's AI use, the one an insurer can read, is the signed AI evidence audit.
What does AI in investigations look like when it is done right?
The machine does the gathering, the cross referencing, and the first draft, and a qualified human directs it, checks it against the sources, and owns every finding. Every input is recorded, the system and version are recorded, and the check is recorded, so the finding holds up wherever it is read. The same shape applies to security operations: AI triages, correlates, and drafts, and a named person decides. Most firms get the first half right and skip the second, which is where the seat earns its keep.
Our insurer added an AI exclusion. Does the seat help with that?
Yes. A firm with a standing advisor has three things it did not have before. Written rules for what AI may touch. A record of how it is used. A named person accountable for it. So a question from a client, a carrier or opposing counsel gets an answer from the file rather than from memory. When the firm needs that as one signed document it can hand over, the seat holder can commission the signed AI evidence audit, which is a separate, fixed piece of work.
//Why this person
Who holds the seat
Matt Aubin is an AI investigation expert and cybercrime specialist. Investigating since 2009. Founded his first firm in 2010 and built it into Southern Recon Agency in 2014. He built a proprietary AI investigation platform his own firms run on live cases. He authored the Evidence-Grade AI Standard, and he teaches the subject: he trained a delegation of Brazilian prosecutors at World Orlando, the State Department sponsored conference in Orlando, and he delivered "A-I for the Modern Private Investigator" at Intellenet's 2026 conference on April 15, 2026.
What the seat holds the work to is written down on the Evidence-Grade AI page, and the system behind the advice is described on the platform page.
A small number of seats, and what one covers.
Tell me the size of the operation and what AI is touching. You get a straight answer on whether a seat fits, and a scope in writing if it does.