In 2011, IBM’s Watson computer system—then an early, noteworthy triumph of artificial intelligence (AI)—was making headlines. Watson had defeated a couple of former "Jeopardy!" champions, dazzling with its encyclopedic knowledge and recall. Watson tantalized us with visions of AI technology solving problems in groundbreaking ways, in the health care context and beyond.

Only that didn’t happen as planned. By 2022, Watson Health had fizzled and IBM sold it to a private equity firm. Nonetheless, Watson gave alternative dispute resolution (ADR) professionals an early AI “aha!” moment. With such capacity and promise, was AI next coming for our jobs as attorneys, mediators and arbitrators?