As one of the biggest private companies and employers in the world, Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has to contend with an enormous amount of legal actions every year. For many, just keeping up with the variety of cases, which run the gamut from tort actions to class action law suits, can be formidable.

But for Aaron Crews, who for three years served as senior associate general counsel and global head of e-discovery at Wal-Mart, the core challenge often comes down to one hurdle: effectively managing and understanding ever-growing relevant data sources.

Crews has steered Wal-Mart's legal department through taming and reviewing more information than most companies handle over the course of an entire year. In August, he became general counsel and vice president of strategy at Text IQ Inc., a legal technology company offering artificial intelligence (AI) powered e-discovery, legal analytics and compliance platforms. He sat down with Legaltech News to discuss how his experiences at Wal-Mart motivated him to join the startup, and why he thinks legal needs AI to survive.