Data indexing algorithms have been used by analysts for quite some time, but in the past computer technology has only been able to classify relatively simple data, such as email messages and presentations. The ACE robot is able to analyze, catalog and summarize data from a variety of sources, including text files, tables and even images, including PDFs. The working principles are similar to those used by ordinary investigators, but the use of artificial intelligence significantly reduces the complexity of the investigation.

During the Rolls-Royce investigation, a team of seven investigators used ACE to analyze about 30 million documents (600,000 per day), mainly to sort them into "important" and "unimportant". Using human labor to process this amount of information would have taken much longer.

According to SFO's CEO, the robot is capable of adding to its own knowledge base and can actually learn to identify documents needed for an investigation and retrieve the necessary information from them on its own, saving lawyers from time-consuming routine tasks and allowing them to focus on more important elements of their work that require the use of their analytical skills. SFO does not rule out the possibility of further use of ACE in its activities, for example, as part of the investigation into Rolls-Royce, which began in August 2012.

The Rolls-Royce investigation lasted four years and on January 17, 2017, the company agreed to sign a Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA), the terms of which provide for the organization to pay £497 million (about 35 billion rubles), including the return of £258 million (18 billion rubles) in illicit profits and £239 million (17 billion rubles) in fines, plus interest, as well as full reimbursement of the SFO's costs (£13 million, or about one billion rubles).