TEL AVIV, Feb 6, 2026, 11:22 (GMT+2)
- Smartphones were cited as the top source of digital evidence in 97% of investigations in a global survey.
- Most respondents said digital evidence boosts solvability but is straining workloads; agencies show interest in AI, with policy limits.
- Cloud evidence-sharing is inching up, but portable drives and USB sticks still dominate, raising custody and access risks.
Smartphones are now the leading source of digital evidence in criminal investigations, appearing in 97% of cases, Cellebrite said in its 2026 Industry Trends Report.
The shift matters because investigators are treating phone data as a starting point, not a late add-on, as more of daily life moves through apps, messages and location data. That is changing how cases are built and how quickly they move.
It is also piling work onto police labs and investigative teams, according to the survey, at a time when agencies are under pressure to show results while staying inside tighter policy and governance lines for new technology.
Cellebrite, which sells tools used to collect and analyse digital evidence, said the report surveyed 1,200 practitioners across 63 countries in its seventh annual snapshot of investigative trends. It said 97% of agency managers believed their communities expect digital evidence to be used in most cases.
“Digital evidence is increasingly where our investigations begin,” said James Howe, a detective with the Columbus, Ohio, Division of Police, in comments included in the report.
On capacity, 95% of public-safety respondents said digital evidence increases solvability, but 94% said the rising complexity is straining caseloads, the survey found. Only 62% of agency leaders said they are shifting resources from legacy methods to digital approaches.
Review time stood out as a bottleneck. Two-thirds of respondents cited it as the biggest barrier to moving cases, a problem that grows as investigators sift through large volumes of messages, media files and app data, the report said.
Artificial intelligence, or AI, drew interest as a way to cut that review burden, but not everyone can use it. Sixty-five percent of public-safety respondents said AI could accelerate investigations, while nearly one-third said their agency’s policies prevent it, the report showed.
Governance and public consent remain sensitive. “The relationship between the public and the police is fundamental,” said Matt Scott, a UK police and crime commissioner, adding that any use of AI or automation should follow consultation and safeguards.
Cloud use is growing, but slowly. The survey put “receptiveness” to cloud-based digital evidence management at 42% in 2026, up from 38% in 2025, while two-thirds of respondents still share evidence through portable hard drives and USB sticks.
That matters because “chain of custody” — the documented record of who handled evidence and when — becomes harder to track when files are copied and shipped around. The report said that can slow cross-agency work and increase access-control risks.
In the private sector, respondents pointed to eDiscovery — the process of collecting and producing electronic records for legal cases — as the top use case at 54%, followed by data theft (46%) and network exploits (44%), the report said. “When used responsibly, AI enables teams to accelerate their work without compromising control or accountability,” said Colin Duncan, an eDiscovery technologist at law firm Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough.
Cellebrite’s Chief Marketing Officer David Gee argued the data shows agencies have little choice but to modernise. “Digital evidence is the backbone of modern justice,” he said, as the company pointed to adoption of its Guardian evidence and case-management platform.
But the same survey flagged why the transition can stall: policies that block AI, evidence-sharing habits built around physical media, and a gap between recognising the problem and moving staff and budgets. If those frictions persist, investigators may face longer backlogs even as expectations for digital-led casework rise.
Shares of Cellebrite, which trades on Nasdaq, were last down about 2.5% from the previous close at $13.59 in late trading, according to market data.
