MORE AI APPLICATIONS TO NEGOTIATE AND MEDIATE

Computer-based negotiation support systems, which date back to the 1980s, are used to organize information, suggest reservation levels, gauge concessions and compromises, and evaluate offers.

Examples of such programs include the following:

1.) Adjusted Winner: Assists separating couples faced with dividing their assets separate items based on the values they assign to each piece.

2.) Cybersettle: Developed by two former trial attorneys for resolving insurance claims and credited with settling some $1.9 billion in medical billing and municipalities disputes. Here’s how it works: A healthcare provider posts demands and Cybersettle solicits counteroffers from the patient. If the patient’s offer equals or exceeds the healthcare provider’s demand, the case settles. If the two monetary figures are close, Cybersettle recommends an amount both parties can accept or reject. If no settlement is reached, the parties may use a “telephone facilitator” to help negotiate an agreement.

3.) Smartsettle: Ernest Thiessen used game theory to develop the Interactive Computer-Assisted Negotiation Support System (ICANS) today known as Smartsettle ONE™ and Smartsettle Infinity™. In Smartsettle,™ negotiators communicate via a secure neutral server on the Internet that acts as a mediator using sophisticated algorithms to suggest efficient outcomes. The negotiators may interact entirely online or face-to-face as well if they so choose.

4.) Chatbot: Walmart has taken negotiation support systems to the next level using chatbot as a negotiator tool. In a three-month pilot program in Canada, the company tested the program with 89 suppliers of goods used in its stores. Among Walmart’s issues in the negotiations were improvements to payment schedules in exchange for concessions on Walmart’s standard right to terminate clause. Walmart also authorized the chatbot to offer future opportunities in exchange for price discounts. The chatbot closed deals with 64% of the suppliers in an average of 11 days for an average 1.5% cost savings. After the pilot study, a survey of the suppliers showed that 83% were favorable with the new negotiation process.

Augmented systems are here to stay and most negotiators and mediators don’t see the technology as a replacement, but as a supplement to human communication skills.