Artificial intelligence (AI), data, digital assets, and sophisticated technology systems are raising new questions about responsibility, evidence, contractual obligations, and risk. For counsel, the challenge is not only understanding the technologies themselves but also anticipating where commercial relationships may break down and how disputes can be resolved effectively.
These challenges are among the issues taking center stage at the 2026 AAA-ICDR® Technology Conference on November 3 in New York City, where legal and technology leaders will explore emerging risks and dispute resolution strategies.
AI Is Creating New Categories of Risk and Disputes
Every major technological shift tests existing legal frameworks. As companies deploy AI to create content, evaluate information, interact with customers, and automate work and decisions, disputes can arise over what the technology was expected to do, how it was used, and who is responsible when outcomes fall short.
Copyright and training data claims have already raised intellectual property questions. Other potential AI-related conflicts include inaccurate outputs, chatbot statements, confidentiality concerns, and contractual promises. Although liability depends on the facts and applicable law, these risks highlight the importance of clearly defined warranties, oversight requirements, risk allocation, and remedies when AI is involved.
Autonomous AI agents introduce additional complexities. When software initiates transactions or takes actions with limited – or no – human intervention, organizations must consider authority, accountability, recordkeeping, and dispute-resolution provisions. These questions surrounding agentic AI, governance, liability, and ethics will be explored at the AAA-ICDR Technology Conference.
Data Is Both a Business Asset and a Potential Source of Conflict
Businesses rely on data to develop products, train systems, and deliver services. Disputes can arise when agreements fail to establish who may access, use, retain, transfer, or commercialize that information.
A software platform dispute, for example, may involve control over customer data, ownership after contract termination, or unauthorized use of proprietary information. Privacy, cybersecurity, and cross-border transfer obligations add complexity.
Counsel should establish clear data rights during contract drafting while also keeping in mind the need to preserve digital evidence, protect confidential information, and explain technical datasets during disputes. As AI increases data's commercial value, effective governance becomes an important dispute-prevention tool.
Digital Assets and Web3 Challenge Traditional Assumptions
Blockchain transactions, tokenized assets, and smart contracts create new questions about counterparties, governing law, and automated execution. What happens when code functions as designed but produces a disputed commercial outcome?
Smart contracts do not eliminate the need for clear legal terms, nor does decentralization resolve jurisdictional or enforcement challenges. Counsel must understand how technology interacts with contractual obligations, available remedies, and asset recovery.
Increasingly Technical Disputes Demand New Approaches
Software implementations, cloud services, cybersecurity incidents, and intellectual property licensing increasingly involve technical evidence, including system architecture, source code, and performance records.
Counsel must preserve evidence early and collaborate with technical experts to distinguish system defects from contractual or operational failures. Selecting dispute-resolution processes and decision-makers with appropriate subject-matter expertise can be critical.
Digital platforms also face growing volumes of similar claims. When hundreds or thousands of disputes arise, traditional individual-case procedures can become costly and difficult to administer. Coordinated case management and early resolution mechanisms offer potential approaches to balancing efficiency and procedural fairness.
AI Is Changing How Legal Services Are Delivered
AI is also transforming how lawyers identify, manage, and potentially prevent disputes.
While established firms integrate AI into existing workflows, AI-native practices are building operations around these capabilities from the outset. AI-assisted contract review could identify risks before agreements are signed, while continuous monitoring might help businesses address disagreements before they escalate.
For corporate counsel, these developments create opportunities to connect legal advice with proactive risk management while maintaining accuracy, professional responsibility, and human oversight.
What Counsel Can Do Now
Preparation begins before a dispute arises. Counsel can strengthen technology agreements by defining performance expectations, data rights, responsibility for automated systems, and procedures for addressing failures.
They should also consider evidence preservation, technical expertise, and whether negotiation, mediation, or arbitration is the best fit for the commercial relationship if a dispute arises.
Because technology and regulations evolve, legal and business teams similarly must evolve, including periodically reassessing their contractual assumptions. Counsel need not become technologists, but they must ask informed questions and involve appropriate expertise.
Join the Conversation at the 2026 AAA-ICDR Technology Conference
The 2026 AAA-ICDR Technology Conference will bring together practitioners, in-house counsel, academics, and technology leaders to examine practical responses to emerging disputes involving AI agents, digital platforms, intellectual property, and high-volume claims.
Through interactive panels, case studies, Shark Tank-style sessions, and TED-style talks, participants will explore early dispute-resolution models, SEP and FRAND conflicts, and strategies for addressing increasingly complex technology disputes.
Presented as part of the AAA's centennial, the conference builds on a century of advancing fairness, integrity, efficiency, and trust in dispute resolution while looking toward future challenges.
Explore the program and register for the 2026 AAA-ICDR Technology Conference to help shape the next generation of technology dispute resolution.