Privacy at Scale: How Rivian Managed Risk During Rapid Growth

Scaling Privacy and AI Governance at Rivian

Rivian builds all-electric trucks, SUVs, and delivery vans designed for exploration and built with intelligence. These vehicles generate tens of thousands of data signals every second. That volume of data creates major responsibilities for the privacy and AI governance team, who must ensure every feature and system complies with evolving regulations and meets the company’s own high standards for responsible data use.

As Rivian prepared to launch new vehicles, expand into new regions, and introduce more AI-powered features, the privacy team faced a volume problem. Reviews were increasing fast, but headcount wasn’t.

“We can see even more reviews coming,” said Jim Gregoire, Head of Privacy and AI Governance at Rivian. “But we can’t get more headcount.”

Facing Review Volume Without More Headcount

Rivian’s vehicles produce tens of thousands of data signals every second. Each new product or feature goes through a review process to assess privacy and AI risks.

Their manual processes couldn’t scale to meet demand. The privacy team was spending too much time reading feature documentation, identifying data flows, and following up with engineers.

It feels like all the work is on us, when we could cut our effort in half if we didn’t have to constantly chase developers.”

Leadership expected speed without sacrificing depth. Developers wanted fewer blockers. And the privacy team knew they needed a different approach if they were going to stay ahead.

But quality mattered as much as speed. A generic AI tool wasn’t going to cut it. They needed something that could reliably produce outputs tailored to Rivian’s terminology, risk posture, and expectations.

Why Rivian Chose Clearly AI

Rivian discovered Clearly AI at a privacy conference and began a three-month proof of concept. The goal was to assess whether automation could reduce overhead without sacrificing accuracy. The results:

• 90% reduction in review turnaround time
• 4x increase in review capacity
• Improved output consistency and quality

“This was a bit of a godsend,” said Gregoire. “It allowed us to condense what would otherwise take weeks or sometimes months into a matter of days, if not hours.”

For Rivian, Clearly AI felt like another privacy analyst on the team who already knew the regulations, understood the company’s approach, and delivered tailored, reliable outputs the first time. Clearly AI was a new team member who didn't require this customary training. Clearly AI integrates directly with Rivian’s JIRA-based intake process. When a new ticket comes in, Clearly AI automatically ingests the context, evaluates risk, and generates summaries and recommendations.

What makes it different is how well it adapts to Rivian’s internal standards. The language, the risk framing, and the export format match what the team would write by hand.

It pulls the tickets in, works its magic, analyzes the inbound, looks at the documentation, comes up with the risks, prepares the recommendations. It’s awesome.”

Supporting Growth Without Growing the Privacy Team

With Clearly AI in place, Rivian has cut review completion time by 90% and increased team capacity by a factor of four. Reviews are faster, developers are less burdened, and documentation quality is consistently high, starting from the first draft. Privacy and AI governance now operate on the same pipeline, using the same risk evaluation framework.

Clearly is by far the leader in this space. They understood exactly what we were going through. They knew the regulations, the compliance obligations, and they built something that worked the way we needed it to.”

Rivian’s privacy team can now support growth without increasing team size. Reviews are handled faster, and engineers get clearer recommendations. Internal trust in the process has gone up as a result. And as the team continues to explore scaling options, they’re thinking about how a tool like Clearly AI could power broader collaboration across teams.

For Teams Facing Similar Challenges

Rivian is one of many teams using Clearly AI to keep up with growing privacy and security demands. As companies ship faster, the pressure on review teams keeps rising.

Clearly AI was built for this. We faced the same challenge at Amazon, so we deeply understand the pain points. We designed a platform that fits into how your team already works.

If your team is trying to scale without burning out, we’d be happy to show you how Clearly AI can help.