The Changing World of Mediation: From Golf Balls to AI
Mon, May 4th, 2026 | by Miles Mediation and Arbitration | Article | Social Share
AI, or artificial intelligence, is exponentially changing the world. It’s also changing the mediation landscape. How did we get here, and more importantly, where will AI mediation take us? With its explosive growth and unknown capabilities, I see that mediators have two potential responses: “Houston, we have a problem,” or “One small step for a mediator …”
Technology’s Impact on Mediation from the 1980s on
The start of my mediation career in the mid 1980s was made much easier by the 1978 introduction of the IBM Selectric typewriter with its golf-ball like mechanism and the IBM personal computer in the early 1980s, along with the expensive car phone also developed in the 80s. My notes were easier to read and edit and the car phone let me inform parties if I was running late for our session.
The Internet (1990s) and iPhone in 2007 were game changers. Graphic displays, video, and PowerPoint improved the mediation experience. Email and digital files expedited the sharing of information.
In 2020, the Covid pandemic accelerated the use of Zoom for mediations making Zoom, and virtual mediations, an essential part of the mediation world. With Zoom-type technology like Webex and Teams, every mediator is now available on a nationwide/international basis. Attorneys, clients and mediators can participate in Zoom mediations from almost anywhere in the world.
Zoom type platforms offer more than simply a two-way video connection. Zoom already includes enhancements like screen sharing, white board, co-hosting, simultaneous multi-language translation, and closed captioning services. (Less appealing for mediation use are transcription and summary assistance.) There are other add-ons that can be used to enhance the mediation experience.
Using AI in Mediation
Today, AI has entered the mediation world. So, what’s next? With the help of AI (thank you, ChatGPT, Copilot, and Google AI programs), I’ve found that AI is expanding the mediator’s resources in many ways.
Transcription. AI already provides significant transcription services such as Otter.ai, AI Whisper, Siri, and Microsoft dictation in addition to the long-standing Dragon series. Care needs to be taken as dictation to the first four sources can become public unless restrictions are put in place.
Data analysis. Predictive analysis of data and comments through AI by mediators is already taking place. Large Language Models (LLMs) AI programs can analyze, summarize, and share enormous amounts of information in milliseconds. The mediator can provide detailed input about the case and receive value information along with precedent cases.
Emotion AI. Data crunching is one thing, but through sophisticated algorithms, AI can read emotions and appear empathetic. According to MorphCast, an advanced facial emotion AI company, “Emotion AI, also known as Affective Computing, is the field of computer science that enables computers to recognize, interpret and simulate human emotions. Facial Emotion Recognition (FER) is a subfield of Emotion AI that focuses on detecting emotions from facial expressions.”
Morphcast.com can detect 130 facial expressions and lets the computer seem empathetic or “human” to the receiver.
This seems fraught with ethical issues. Scientists have many concerns about the advance of AI. One that alarms me is that AI will think (and hallucinate) for you. And why not? ChatGPT’s knowledge base is already in the “terabyte” range (a terabyte is one trillion bytes). Just wait till it gets to the theoretical “yottabytes” (a “yottabyte” is one septillion, or 1024 bytes).
The Future of AI, Technology, and Mediation
AI offers some compelling benefits for mediators and the mediation process itself. AI can provide adaptive interfaces to help people with disabilities overcome access issues. AI can also become a training mechanism for mediators. Think of it as a partner that think and reason as quickly as you can on any given issue.
Coming soon are Reasoning AI, which uses humanlike reasoning to solve problems, and Agentic AI, which will think and act autonomously to reach decisions. The holy grail is Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which has a goal to imbue AI with humanlike intellectual capacity.
The esoteric world of quantum mechanics through quantum computing (entanglement and superposition) will eventually coalesce with AI and greatly enhance AI capabilities to develop both faster and even more sophisticated algorithms beyond that of mortal computers.
I asked ChatGPT how AI could improve the mediation experience. Some of the first 20 suggestions from ChatGPT included:
- enhanced calendar coordination
- improving the mediator selection process
- real-time generation of settlement documents
- post-case monitoring of agreements
- providing reduced or minimal cost mediation opportunities.
Personally, I’d like to see the real-time use of holograms in Zoom-type mediations. Imagine your image being transported in real time to the client’s room. The mediator would be able to communicate with the clients as if you were there in person rather than remotely.
But AI presents potential problems. The European Union’s “Artificial Intelligence Act,” which became law on August 1, 2024, seeks to address some of them. This law requires that humans stay in the loop to protect and promote legal rights, assure accountability, confirm that the algorithms are not biased, promote availability, and make certain that ethical guidelines are not crossed. This is the responsibility of everyone, not only mediators, and the attorneys who participate in the mediation.
Finally, your author recognizes the risks that AI carries with it — and believes that the positives will greatly outweigh the negatives.
*Originally published in the St. Louis Law Journal and reprinted with permission.
About Mike Geigerman
Michael “Mike” Geigerman has mediated over 4800 cases including those involving automobile and trucking accidents, FELA, nursing home, premises liability, and wrongful death. He also handles cases involving clergy and school abuse, professional malpractice, and serious personal injury (involving numerous seven- and eight-figure settlements) and has mediated a wide variety of claims including complex real estate transactions, construction law, discrimination (racial, sex, age, and ADA), environmental law, farm and home foreclosures, police brutality, probate, and product liability. In addition, he mediates insurance coverage issues as well as commercial and business disputes including claims between multinational organizations and their franchisees, class actions, multi-cultural conflicts, and first amendment claims.