Written by Dr. Lemonia (Lenia) Papadopoulou-Kelidou and Dr. Nikolaos Antonakakis (*)
Artificial Intelligence (AI) opens new horizons in the art of Negotiation by helping to reach agreements faster and more accurately.
How would you feel if you were invited to a negotiation and met a chatbot instead of a physical person?
What feelings would that realization evoke in you?
How effectively would you negotiate?
Recently Kerld Jensen conducted a three-stage negotiation experiment. In the first stage the negotiation was carried out between individuals without any AI assistance. Several weaknesses were recorded such as: off-topic discussions, time delays, inability to reach an agreement within a predetermined time, stereotypical communication between the parties involved, withholding of ‘risky’ information due to fear and prejudice regarding the correctness of sharing inside information.
In the second stage, one stakeholder exploited the AI and negotiated with the other stakeholder who did not exploit the corresponding technology. The negotiation was thematically more structured, data were formulated more precisely, more mutually beneficial alternatives were discussed and an agreement was reached narrowly, just before the end of the timeframe.
In the last stage, both parties used a chatbot as an assistant to negotiate. The results were impressive. The parties involved were adequately prepared and exchanged information important to the negotiation, considered a multitude of alternatives, arrived at the optimal negotiated outcome within time and had the time available to confirm the degree of effectiveness of the negotiation.
Although many argue and question the reliability and usefulness of AI, AI is a reality that facilitates processes and achieves better results for two reasons: it has access to a wealth of data in real time and can process the data in just a few seconds. In short, AI doesn’t just mimic the human mind, it surpasses it!
So what does this revolution bring us? Changes in Negotiations in terms of preparation, communication, formulating strategies and tactics, analysing results and drafting and negotiating contracts/agreements.
While until now the negotiation process required a long preparation time and a number of people/teams with the required expertise, AI with appropriate programming collects and presents data about the interested party and the “opponents” in just a few seconds.
The AI algorithms can “read” micro facial expressions and decode the tone of voice, then categorize this data into emotions such as joy, sadness, anger, anxiety, tension, etc. This does not mean that they accurately identify the psychology of the negotiator in question, nor does it mean that they detect lying. The technology is still far from this stage. But AI does provide more information about the interlocutors, which when taken together with other elements of human behaviour can help a negotiator to form a more accurate view of his interlocutor. Remember that reading body language is particularly difficult and to be accurate it requires a number of observers to cross-check evidence and opinions.
The AI can use a chatbot to propose real-time negotiation strategies and tactics. Developing a negotiation strategy until now required good process knowledge, training and practice. Now by giving the right information to a chatbot one can have a multitude of alternative strategies and tactics to achieve one’s goal. Even the most inexperienced negotiators can through AI negotiate more effectively. This does not devalue knowledge. On the contrary, it enhances it and adds to the need to know and use the tool called AI. AI can even help in target setting. After all, formulating a corporate goal is not a brainstorming process. It requires what we call situational analysis, which includes SWOT analysis, positioning analysis, analysis of general market conditions, etc. Having the appropriate data, AI is able to propose objectives aligned with the interests of the company in question in less than a minute.
The AI can draw up agreements, contracts, propose amendments to the terms of agreements in the interests of the party concerned and negotiate directly with suppliers. Walmart already has chatbots that automatically negotiate with suppliers. Luminance is an AI platform that leverages AI to process legal texts with over 600 clients in more than 60 countries.
Eventually replace humans with AI and chatbots? Of course not! AI and chatbots are assistants and useful tools for humans, for strategizing and making strategic decisions. For purely technical data analysis tasks, “yes” we can trust AI. But the use of the analysis results must be evaluated by humans. Elements of a person’s psychology are identified through facial recognition technology, elements of lie detection are identified through AI algorithms, but in no case can they be considered-at least not yet-as absolute truth without deviation from reality. The use of AI greatly assists the negotiation process, saves time, prevents communication and strategic errors and requires the human factor to achieve the desired results. AI is an assistant and not a replacement for the human being.
(*) Dr. Lemonia Papadopoulou-Kelidou, General Manager Lambda Negotiations, Instructor UN Tourism Academy “Negotiations in Tourism”
Professor Dr. Nikolaos Antonakakis, Webster Vienna University, Artificial Intelligence and Data Analysis Specialist
