The full breadth of legal practice is being radically reshaped by the introduction of AI – with international arbitration being no exception. The status quo has been upended as practitioners look to understand, and benefit from, the new opportunities it creates to make arbitration more efficient and deliver better outcomes for participants.
AI and its capabilities in arbitration are progressing rapidly. The sector is still unearthing its full potential and exploring new AI use cases in arbitration. Increasingly practitioners now seek to understand it and be trained in using it, looking to upskill themselves to maintain a competitive edge. However, even in this early phase in its adoption many procedures and processes are now underpinned and empowered by AI technology. This article considers some of the most impactful and most common current use-cases for AI that are transforming the world of international arbitration.
A head start
Lawyers and arbitrators spend a significant amount of time drafting various kinds of documents, from submissions to correspondence, and even day-to-day emails both internal and external. AI can be an effective tool to cut down the amount of time this takes. It can even generate first drafts of such documents, which allows lawyers and arbitrators alike to spend more time on strategic matters and work requiring their legal knowledge and expertise which is where they add value.
AI can also support arbitrators in drafting procedural orders and sections of awards and decisions such as the procedural history which is a time-consuming exercise that does not require their legal knowledge or decision-making skills. AI can help make submissions and awards more concise, summarising sections that could be cut down, avoiding unduly long documents which is highly sought after. Arbitrators now increasingly choose to set limits on the number of pages for written submissions. This AI enhanced process could also save time on the back and forth between Tribunals and institutions when it comes to reviewing awards with better quality awards being produced which adhere to the institutions’ requirements. These still require human input and thorough review and by no means replace human thinking or decision-making, but by creating a first draft in less than a minute, summarising sections and providing more concise wording, AI can cut hours from the process and reduce costs.
AI can also be used as a safety net to ensure lawyers and arbitrators have not missed something. For instance, by providing a list of issues or extracting events and entities in seconds. This ensures submissions and awards are of a higher standard and important issues are not missed.
Further, not only can AI help to produce first drafts, but it can also help with the review process of those drafts and help finalise them to a high standard. It can speedily analyse drafts to catch typos, suggest improvements, assist in structuring arguments, highlight any inconsistencies, and raise any potential omissions. It could also help structure unstructured data in bullet points or tables which can readily be used rather than long paragraphs. While an errant typo can easily be missed by even the most honed human eye, AI can ensure that errors are caught, and documents are immaculately presented. The result is less time spent on proofing and more time consciously editing documents – improving quality and outcomes.
Document review & analysis
Arbitration cases often involve extensive documentation that requires significant time to review and analyse. AI-powered tools can dramatically reduce the time lawyers spend on document review by identifying key arguments, summarising lengthy materials, and extracting events, people, and entities. For arbitrators, AI enables quicker identification of the most relevant evidence, streamlining the decision-making process and allowing them to focus on evaluating arguments and applying legal principles. Instead of sifting through hundreds of pages manually which may not always be possible in the time available, arbitrators can instead use AI-generated summaries, timelines, and relationship maps to understand case dynamics, get to know the case faster, and help with preparedness for hearings.
For both lawyers and arbitrators, AI tools extracting key information, analysing sentiment, and tone and providing visual representations of large sets of information such as timelines or relationship maps can be a valuable asset in narrowing down large data sets and concentrating on the task at hand. In times where huge volumes of documents are used as a strategy to “bury” opponents or in an attempt to make a thinly argued case seem stronger, AI assistance will prove invaluable and will allow international arbitration to concentrate on the fundamentals – to resolve a case fairly and efficiently.
Case management made easy
Arbitration cases require careful management in line with strict procedural requirements, especially when it comes to expedited processes. This means ensuring deadlines are met, evidence is handled appropriately and there is constant, clear communication with all relevant stakeholders, in line with the relevant rules. Further, most arbitration practitioners will need to juggle this management between multiple cases of varying complexity at a time.
Case management can be challenging to do effectively but AI tools can help to simplify it and free up valuable time to deal with the important issues of the case itself. They can do this by automatically tracking tasks and any upcoming deadlines to ensure they are met, while assisting with task prioritisation and scheduling. They can also centralise correspondence to provide simplified overviews, reduce the risk of miscommunication and support team collaboration.
There are also AI platforms and tools that can organise and consolidate case materials into practical formats that are easily searchable. Specifically, AI tools can be used to organise key events, people and evidence, and bundle documents ensuring successful management of the case whether that is in relation to preparing for a witness interview or a hearing. This makes finding and using information simple and speedy during busy and stressful times throughout the arbitration. They can also help with case management for arbitrators overseeing proceedings. Specifically, AI tools can consolidate case materials into searchable, well organised formats making it easier to access information during hearings and deliberations and at the same time help them prepare for hearings, efficiently draft awards, and importantly, flag inconsistencies to raise question and request further information. All of this helps to make arbitration proceedings run more smoothly, deliver better outcomes, and ultimately deliver justice.
Converting audio to digital text
AI-powered speech-to-text tools convert audio files into digital text with high accuracy reducing the time spent on manual transcription. This searchable digital text can then be formatted quickly for case files or briefs streamlining preparatory work throughout an arbitration. Even further, AI tools can also translate foreign languages quickly making multi-lingual proceedings more manageable and efficient.
Getting ahead of the curve
AI tools can use predictive analytics to provide insights on potential case outcomes by analysing publicly available, comparable litigation data, available arbitration rulings, and wider trends. While arbitration awards and proceedings are generally confidential, there is enough publicly available information and comparable litigation data to generate meaningful analysis. This can help lawyers to consider their strategy and assess the strengths of a case, informing their decisions and any settlement discussions.
Looking to the future
The uses discussed above show how AI is already revolutionising the world of international arbitration. Though we are still in the early days of its adoption, AI is already a central tool in the arsenal of lawyers and arbitrators alike and used across the full breadth of the arbitral process. According to the White & Case and Queen Mary 2025 International Arbitration Survey, the general consensus is that, over the next five years, international arbitration and its users will adopt, and adapt to, AI. Respondents predict that arbitrators will increasingly rely on AI (52%) and that new roles to work with AI will emerge (40%).
It is important to note that AI does not, and should not, replace the human element of arbitration. AI tools serve to highlight the relevant information, transcribe notes, and predict patterns, but humans must still undertake the decision-making and review all outputs. Its adoption should always be used to promote and support arbitration’s core values of fairness, efficiency, confidentiality, and flexibility. AI tools empower arbitration professionals to work more efficiently and make better decisions – it is not a replacement for them or their specialist skills but rather a tool to augment these.
Nevertheless, AI has already helped to save countless hours and cut costs by unlocking new ways to drastically increase efficiency. This is especially true when AI tools are thoughtfully embedded within case management and hearing solutions to enhance existing workflows without the need to learn a new solution or add new steps existing processes. As platforms and tools become even more powerful these efficiency gains will only increase, and new use cases are bound to be discovered.
AI has already transformed the field of arbitration, but it is exciting to consider that this transformation is far from complete.
