The recently released language artificial intelligence (AI) ChatGPT has received an enormous amount of media attention. The reason is that AI is now at a level of sophistication that it is becoming indistinguishable from human outputs. These developments will revolutionize the way we conduct negotiations. AI will drastically change the way we negotiate in the short, mid and long term.
In the short term, AI can be used to automate mundane tasks such as data collection and analysis. This will allow negotiators to focus on more complex tasks such as understanding their opponent’s motivations and interests. AI can also be used to identify patterns in past negotiations that can be used to inform future strategies. Additionally, AI can be used to generate insights into how different negotiation tactics may affect outcomes. It is therefore ESSENTIAL that organizations start keeping detailed record of past negotiations, as an AI needs data from the past to work with.
In the mid-term, AI will become increasingly sophisticated and capable of more complex tasks such as predicting outcomes based on past negotiations and providing advice on how best to proceed in a given situation. This will quicken the difficult task of opportunity and obstacles analysis, as well as scenario planning. AI will also be able to provide real-time feedback on how a negotiation is progressing and suggest changes that could improve outcomes.
In the long term, AI will become even more advanced and capable of taking over entire negotiations from start to finish. This could lead to faster, more efficient negotiations with fewer mistakes due to human error.
Overall, it is clear that AI will have a profound impact on negotiations in the short, mid and long term. By automating mundane tasks and providing real-time feedback on how a negotiation is progressing, AI has the potential to revolutionize the way we negotiate in both business and personal settings.
Once AI takes over negotiations the question now is: will we reach a stage where we just enter parameters into a system and the AI will just spit out an agreement? That world does seem very clinical to me…
Adrien-Joseph Le Clef 
