AI in the Mediation Room: How Artificial Intelligence Is Reshaping Construction Dispute Resolution

Construction Litigation attorney Gregory Meeder and Innovation Practice Group attorney Aaron Crews co-authored an article for the American Arbitration Association's (AAA) Mediation Magazine describing how artificial intelligence (AI) can aid mediation of construction disputes. As the authors detail, mediation presents a collaborate, creative approach to dispute resolution, one where AI tools can lead to more focused dialogue grounded in parties' actual data and legal positions, allowing the process to proceed more efficiently and less combatively. They walk through a real-life example in which a mediator deployed AI-assisted "Move the Needle" Clarification Questions to break through stalled negotiations by synthesizing records and generating targeted questions for each side. They then distinguish between analytic AI and large language models (LLMs) before taking a more in-depth look at guardrails around transparency, confidentiality and data security, and human judgment. The article concludes by summarizing how AI-assisted workflows align with the goals of mediation as well as outlining what a well-designed AI-assisted mediation process looks like.

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