AI assistance inside Report Writer

Report Writer includes optional AI assistance designed to speed up the boring parts of writing without taking the writing out of your hands. This article explains what the AI can and cannot do inside a Report, when each mode runs, and how to keep control of what ends up in the final document.

The three modes

NearbySpy uses three distinct AI behaviors inside Report Writer, each suited to a different task.

• Command. Triggered explicitly by you. Highlight a passage, invoke the command, and ask for an action — rewrite for clarity, tighten the timeline, convert bullet points into prose, summarize, expand, translate.
• Copilot. Inline suggestions that appear as you write. Copilot offers continuations or improvements you can accept with a keystroke or ignore by continuing to type. It never overwrites your text without your input.
• Classifier. A behind-the-scenes mode that helps with mechanical cleanup — labeling sections, normalizing formatting, surfacing inconsistencies. The classifier never produces prose; it organizes what you already wrote.

All three modes are off until you opt in by invoking them. Nothing about your Report is sent to a model on page load.

Models and routing

NearbySpy routes AI requests through OpenRouter using models selected by your account configuration. Different modes can use different models, chosen for cost and quality balance — for example, a faster model for inline copilot suggestions and a stronger model for explicit commands. You do not have to pick or manage models; the platform does that for you.

What the AI can see

The AI is scoped to the Report you are actively editing. It does not have access to:

• Other Reports on the Case, unless you paste their contents in.
• The contents of Evidence files. The model never reads the bytes of a photo, video, document, or audio file from your Evidence Locker.
• Internal Comments on Operations.
• Case data from other Cases you are a member of.

If a piece of information is not in the open document, the AI does not know about it. That is intentional — it keeps the AI from quietly leaking material across boundaries it should not cross.

What the AI does not do

• It does not auto-generate full Reports. There is no "write me a report" button.
• It does not modify Evidence. Evidence is immutable, regardless of any tool that touches the Report. See Why Evidence is immutable and how archive/restore works.
• It does not share your Report with a Client. Sharing is a deliberate action you take from Report Writer; AI does not change visibility.
• It does not get used as a source of facts. Treat AI output as draft prose to verify, never as a citation.

Privacy and training

NearbySpy's contract with its model provider does not allow training on your content. AI requests carry the text necessary to fulfill the request, and nothing else. If your firm has stricter privacy posture, AI assistance can be turned off entirely; you can write Reports without ever invoking it.

Verifying AI output

Treat any AI output the same way you would treat a junior staffer's first draft. Read it for accuracy. Check that names, dates, addresses, plate numbers, and case identifiers are correct. Compare claims to the Evidence in the Evidence Locker. Anything you cannot verify, cut. The Report has your name on it, not the model's.

When AI is most useful

• Tightening a long, rambling first draft into the version you would actually send.
• Reformatting a wall of bullet points into clean prose, or vice versa.
• Suggesting the next sentence when you are stuck mid-paragraph.
• Catching obvious inconsistencies — an Operator's name spelled two different ways, a date stated as both Tuesday and Wednesday.

When to keep AI off

• Verbatim transcription. Use the actual transcript, not an AI summary.
• Anything where you intend the exact wording to be quoted in a deposition or court filing.
• Cases where the Client or jurisdiction has explicitly required no AI assistance in the deliverable. Document the requirement on the Case.

For broader product context, see Report Writer overview.