Woodway Unveils AI Chatbot to Cut Data Privacy Work from Weeks to Minutes

OTTAWA, ON – February 23, 2026 – In a move poised to reshape how organizations handle data privacy, Ottawa-based Woodway Assurance has launched EviData™ 2.0, a significant update to its flagship software that now includes EviChat™, an integrated AI companion. The new platform automates the complex and time-consuming process of privacy risk assessment for de-identified and synthetic datasets, promising to slash a weeks-long manual effort into a task completed in minutes.

For years, businesses have faced a critical paradox: the drive to innovate using vast amounts of data for analytics and artificial intelligence has been consistently throttled by the need to ensure data privacy. This bottleneck often forces data projects to a standstill as teams struggle to provide concrete evidence that their datasets have been properly de-identified, a process that strips data of personal identifiers to protect individuals' privacy. The launch of EviData 2.0 with its conversational AI aims to dismantle this barrier, democratizing privacy compliance and potentially accelerating the pace of data-driven innovation.

The High Cost of Uncertainty

In the modern data economy, the inability to use data is a significant competitive disadvantage. However, the risk of non-compliance with privacy regulations is equally daunting. Organizations have traditionally relied on external consultants and teams of internal experts to manually conduct privacy risk assessments. This process is not only expensive but can take weeks or even months, creating a major roadblock in the data-to-insight pipeline.

This challenge has been amplified by increasingly stringent and complex regulatory frameworks. For instance, the Information and Privacy Commissioner (IPC) of Ontario recently released updated guidelines for de-identifying structured data. These comprehensive, 100-plus-page guidelines outline a detailed 12-step process, setting a high bar for compliance. Similarly, international standards like ISO/IEC 27559 provide a framework for privacy-enhancing data de-identification that organizations must navigate. Failing to meet these standards can lead to project cancellation, reputational damage, and severe financial penalties, leading many organizations to adopt a risk-averse, "default 'no'" posture when it comes to data sharing and utilization.

This is the landscape Woodway Assurance, led by renowned data privacy expert Dr. Khaled El Emam, aims to transform. Dr. El Emam, who also serves as a Canada Research Chair in Medical AI, brings decades of academic and entrepreneurial experience in data anonymization to the company, lending significant scientific credibility to the new platform.

Automating Trust and Compliance

EviData 2.0 directly confronts the challenges of manual assessment by offering a streamlined, automated software solution. Users can upload a de-identified or synthetic dataset into the platform, which runs entirely within their own secure environment, addressing data sovereignty concerns. The software then performs a sophisticated risk analysis, generating a clear, independent report in minutes.

This report is the core of EviData's value proposition. It provides an auditable, third-party assessment of the dataset's re-identification risk, transparently mapped against recognized standards from bodies like the Ontario IPC and ISO. This documentation serves as defensible evidence of due diligence, empowering data governance teams to move from uncertainty to a confident, evidence-based "managed 'yes'" for data use. It effectively replaces a subjective, lengthy process with an objective, rapid, and scalable one.

By automating this crucial step, the platform enables data analysts, business leaders, and AI experts—not just privacy lawyers or specialized consultants—to take an active role in the compliance process. This shift is designed to integrate privacy assessment seamlessly into the data workflow rather than having it act as a final, often prohibitive, gate.

EviChat: The AI Guide for a New Era of Data Use

The most groundbreaking feature of the 2.0 release is EviChat. Once an EviData assessment is complete, users can immediately begin a conversation with the AI companion to interpret the results. This feature is designed to bridge the gap between a technical risk report and actionable business intelligence.

Users can ask EviChat a range of questions, such as clarifying what the risk score means, identifying the specific data attributes that contributed most to the risk level, and exploring practical steps to further reduce risk while preserving the dataset's utility for analysis. The AI can convert complex risk metrics into practical deliverables, empowering teams to make informed decisions on the spot.

"EviData helps teams move from uncertainty to evidence they can stand behind," said Dr. Khaled El Emam, Founder and CEO of Woodway Assurance, in the official announcement. "With EviChat now added to the experience, users can ask follow-up questions right away, without reliance on extra interpretation. It changes the game for risk assessments because teams can get those answers themselves – and that's liberating. Early users have told us they got goosebumps, because it's that fast, easy and useful."

To ensure reliability, EviChat was built using TELUS Digital's Fuel iX™ enterprise AI platform, which provides a framework for building and managing generative AI applications with built-in governance and control. The AI draws its answers from a curated knowledgebase of privacy resources and the specific user-generated report, ensuring its responses are accurate, consistent, and contextually relevant.

Redefining the Data-Driven Enterprise

With the launch of EviData 2.0 and EviChat, Woodway Assurance is not merely selling a piece of software; it is championing a fundamental shift in how businesses approach data privacy. By making sophisticated risk assessment accessible, affordable, and fast, the company is positioning itself as a critical enabler of responsible innovation.

This vision has already attracted significant market confidence. In late 2025, Woodway Assurance closed an oversubscribed $1 million seed funding round, signaling strong investor belief in the company's potential to become an essential layer in the modern data stack. The introduction of EviChat only strengthens this position, adding a unique layer of user empowerment and intelligence that differentiates it in a growing market of privacy-enhancing technologies.

As organizations across all sectors, from healthcare to finance, continue to double down on AI and big data analytics, the need for solutions that reconcile innovation with responsibility has never been greater. By providing a tool that allows teams to assess data privacy risk with newfound speed and confidence, Woodway Assurance is offering a clear path forward, helping to unlock the full potential of data without compromising the fundamental right to privacy.