The risk in research-based deliverables
In 2025, Deloitte's Australian member firm agreed to refund the final installment of a government contract worth about US$290,000, as Fortune reported, after a report was found to contain references to nonexistent research and a fabricated quotation from a court judgment. The report had been prepared with the help of a generative AI tool. The episode was widely reported because the errors were the kind any reviewer could have caught by opening the cited sources.
Consultants, analysts and advisory firms now face the same question experts face in court: not whether AI was used, but whether every source in the deliverable was checked.
What Checked Sources is designed to provide
- A source list extracted from the draft report, ready for review before delivery
- A finding recorded for every source, with discrepancies noted and corrected
- Team roles that show who checked each source and who approved the report
- A verification record that can be delivered to the client with the report
- Re-verification when the report is revised, so late edits are not missed
Where it fits in a review process
Most firms already have a quality review before a report goes out: a second reader, a partner sign-off, an editorial check. Source verification usually sits inside that review informally, with each reviewer spot-checking what catches their eye. Checked Sources is designed to make it systematic. Every source in the draft is listed, every source receives a finding, and the sign-off can see at a glance which items were verified, which were corrected and which could not be checked.
That last category matters. A source that cannot be checked, because it is behind a paywall, was taken offline or exists only in print, is recorded as such rather than silently passed. The reviewer and the client can then decide what to do about it.
A record for the client file
A short verification summary, attached to a deliverable, answers a client's question before it is asked. The full log stays available if the work is later questioned by the client, an auditor or a regulator.
Checked Sources is in development. The plans page describes the account types planned for firms.