In the 2026 science fiction thriller Mercy, a detective accused of murder is required to prove his innocence before an artificial intelligence judge. The premise is intentionally dramatic: AI adjudication, a compressed timeline, and the replacement of traditional legal safeguards with speed and automation. While the storyline remains firmly in the realm of science fiction, the broader concept of AI-assisted decision-making may be closer to our professional reality than many lawyers would have expected only a few years ago.
The more immediate development is not the replacement of judges, arbitrators, or mediators by machines. Rather, it appears to be the use of AI to assist human decision-makers in organizing evidence, summarizing submissions, identifying issues, and preparing draft reasons or awards. That distinction is important. The question for lawyers may not be whether AI will decide disputes on its own, but how quickly AI-assisted dispute resolution will become a practical part of the litigation and alternative dispute resolution landscape.
One noteworthy example is the American Arbitration Association’s AI Arbitrator. According to the American Arbitration Association, its AI Arbitrator is currently available for two-party, document-only construction cases, with final awards issued by human arbitrators. The AI Arbitrator is described as assisting with document summaries, analysis, and draft award preparation, while parties provide feedback and a human arbitrator reviews, finalizes, and issues the award. The American Arbitration Association describes the offering as intended to provide faster resolution at lower costs, while retaining human oversight. Early figures suggest cost savings in the range of 35-45% cost savings and time savings of 20-25% for eligible cases.
Similar developments are also underway in Canada. Just last week, ADR Chambers launched aiADR, a new suite of AI-assisted dispute resolution tools. The new services include aiADR Arbitrator, an AI-driven arbitration service that reviews written submissions and produces written arbitral awards, subject to human review and oversight. Currently offered at a flat fee of $4,000.00 plus HST, the cost is meaningfully less than that typically associated with a traditional arbitration or obtaining determinations of issues at court. ADR Chambers is also developing a high-volume dispute resolution platform for large organizations dealing with significant volumes of low-value disputes.
For estates lawyers, the immediate implications of new cost-efficient options in arbitration are worth considering. In our experience, arbitration remains underutilized in estates matters. That may be because many estate disputes involve non-parties, capacity issues, issues requiring court direction or approval, or family dynamics that make consensual private processes more difficult to structure. However, arbitration is recognized as being suitable for at least some estates disputes, particularly where the issues are discrete, document-driven, or where the parties would benefit from a more private, flexible, and potentially faster process than litigation. Contested passings of accounts, discrete document-based claims, contested interpretations of written instruments, and lower-value estate disputes may all become areas where parties look for faster and less expensive processes, including forms of AI-assisted arbitration.
For the time being, the most promising uses of AI in dispute resolution appear to be those that combine technological assistance with meaningful human oversight. AI may help identify issues, summarize evidence, test arguments, generate draft analyses, or show parties how an adjudicator might view the strengths and weaknesses in their positions. The roles of lawyers, mediators, arbitrators, and judges remain central in assessing fairness, proportionality, credibility, context, and procedural safeguards. In that sense, while powerful tools are certainly emerging, AI may currently be less like the fictional judge in Mercy and instead have an increasing role in improving the focus, efficiency, and accessibility of dispute resolution.
For lawyers practising in estates and trusts, there is opportunity to engage with these developments thoughtfully and constructively. The challenge, and opportunity, will be to consider how AI-assisted tools can help parties better understand risk, narrow issues, and resolve disputes more proportionately, without compromising judgment, transparency, and procedural fairness.
Thank you for reading,
Nick Esterbauer