Since Harvard: Three Conversations on the Future of Conflict Resolution
A few weeks ago I was at the annual forum on Online Dispute Resolution after presenting the documentary film on ODR (watch at lmipodcast.com/film/odr). I sat in a room full of people who all believe the same thing I do: that most conflict never needs to end up in a courtroom. I left with a notebook full of ideas, and a run of conversations that, taken together, map out where dispute resolution is actually heading.
Three of those conversations are now live on the LMIPodcast. What strikes me is that they line up almost perfectly on a spectrum: the AI mediator, the human in the middle, and the central negotiation skills that help keep a conflict from ever getting that far. Here’s the tour on the LMINetwork’s LMIPodcast.
1. The AI mediator, Dyspute.ai with co-founder Frank Goldberg
On the second day of the ODR forum, I attended the American Arbitration Association’s event “Arbitration and mediation at the age of AI.” There I met Renee Jackson, co-founder of Dyspute.ai. That introduction led me to sit down with her co-founder, Frank Goldberg, to talk about Adri, a 24/7 AI mediator that takes a dispute from intake to an e-signed settlement in days, not months, for around $299.
We got into the question every mediator asks first: does AI replace us, or empower us? Frank’s answer, “it’s not cutting into the pie, it’s creating a new pie”, reframes the whole debate. This is squarely aimed at the enormous class of everyday disputes no attorney can economically take.
▶️ Watch: EP360, Can AI Settle Your Dispute? Meet Adri, the AI Mediator
2. The human answer, Mendful with CEO Jill Nagle
If Frank built the AI mediator, Jill Nagle built the deliberately human one. Mendful styles itself as the first platform offering human-led conflict resolution on demand. Jill describes the goal is to make mediation coaches readily available, like calling an Uber, in order to address conflict blow-ups before they harden into estrangement.
What I appreciated most: in an everything-AI moment, Jill kept a promise to always let people bypass the AI entirely and reach a human. She shared why it’s personal for her, and the sobering statistic behind the whole mission, including that more than one in four adults is estranged from a family member.
▶️ Watch: EP361, where Jill Nagle discusses repairing relationships via Conflict Resolution using Mendful.world.
3. Upstream, before it becomes a divorce with Author Joe Dillon
Lastly I brought back Joe Dillon, divorce mediator, Harvard-trained negotiator, and now author. Joe’s forthcoming book, You’re Doing It Wrong, and his POWER UP Method tackle the conflict before it reaches anyone’s office.
Joe’s insight stuck with me: most couples don’t have a hundred fights, they have two or three that keep recurring year after year. We talked about the “I’ve decided” pattern, why couples fall into “violent agreement” (agreeing and still arguing), and the “marriage bank” of small deposits and withdrawals. This talk was practical, sometimes funny, and very useful for couples who find themselves in conflict, whether or not they ever see a mediator.
▶️ Watch: EP362, You’re Doing It Wrong: Author Joe Dillon on the POWER UP Method
The through-line
Put these three side by side and you can see the field maturing: AI handling the disputes no one could afford to resolve, humans staying in the loop where trust matters most, and better skills keeping conflicts from escalating in the first place. That’s not three competing visions, it’s one ecosystem, and it’s arriving faster than most of us expected.
If any of these resonate, watch the episodes on Youtube.com/@lminetwork or anywhere you get your podcasts.
Mac-Arthur Pierre-Louis
