Strategic Partnership With Global Travel Leader: Transforming the Machine Learning Review Process

In April 2024, RedCloud Consulting embedded a team of experienced privacy consultants within the operations of a global travel corporation. The partner’s platform, supporting over a million lodgings and experiences across 220+ countries, relies on machine learning for features like recommendations, dynamic pricing, fraud detection, and natural language processing. RedCloud helped streamline the partner’s complex machine learning review process to ensure high-quality, secure, and ethical product development while accelerating feature delivery.

Client Situation

The partner’s machine learning review process involved multiple disciplines, including product legal, licensing legal, information security, privacy, engineering, anti-discrimination, and product data science teams. Challenges included:

• Disparate reviews conducted over email and telephone, resulting in inconsistent documentation and communication

• Reviews are often initiated late in the development cycle, causing delays and rework

• Lengthy review times, averaging several months and sometimes exceeding a year

RedCloud was engaged to improve efficiency, standardize processes, and enhance collaboration across the review teams.

Our Approach

RedCloud implemented a structured and integrated solution:

1. Holistic Review System in Jira: Consolidated multiple review streams into a single platform for tracking, reporting, and collaboration.

2. Standardized Criteria and Workflows: Created consistent templates, review criteria, and workflows for all disciplines to ensure clarity and uniformity.

3. System Integration with ML Platform: Enabled automated triggers and notifications for review requests and status updates.

4. Early Engagement with ML Teams: Facilitated privacy-by-design principles and addressed potential issues early in the development lifecycle.

This approach combined process standardization, early stakeholder engagement, and platform automation to drastically reduce bottlenecks and improve overall review quality.

Impact

The partnership between RedCloud and the client delivered significant results:

• Accelerated Review Timelines: Reduced average review time from several months to approximately two weeks

• Improved Collaboration & Communication: Fostered trust, transparency, and timely feedback among review teams

• Enhanced Documentation & Auditability: Standardized processes improved traceability and accountability

• Increased Stakeholder Satisfaction: Machine learning teams received prompt guidance and actionable feedback

• Best Practices Embedded: Lessons learned, including early engagement, standardized workflows, and automation, strengthened long-term process maturity

By integrating privacy expertise, automation, and structured workflows, RedCloud transformed a fragmented, time-intensive review process into a streamlined, efficient, and transparent system. The solution accelerated machine learning feature delivery, enhanced team collaboration, and established a foundation for sustainable, high-quality product development.

Ready to strengthen your privacy and data governance practices?

Contact RedCloud’s Privacy Practice team today to learn how we can help ensure compliance, streamline reviews, and embed privacy-by-design principles across your organization.