Artificial Intelligence is Shaping International Arbitration Practices and Awards

International arbitration practices are being reshaped with the increasing use of artificial intelligence in research, evidence management, and arbitrator awards. According to studies, while the majority of practitioners benefit from artificial intelligence, serious issues such as artificial intelligence-induced risks in legal disputes and the annulment of awards are also coming to the agenda.

The use of artificial intelligence technologies in international arbitration processes spans a wide area including document review, legal research, evidence analysis, drafting, and the work of arbitrators. According to the 2025 International Arbitration Survey by Queen Mary University, 64 percent of practitioners already use artificial intelligence for factual or legal research, and 91 percent expect to do so within the next five years. This widespread use brings along various challenges that go beyond a single area of application.

With the integration of artificial intelligence into the arbitration workflow, interconnected risks emerge such as hallucinated content, confidentiality and data leakage, non-transparent outputs, and workflow-level biases. Notably, in the case of ARIHQ v Santé Québec, after it was understood that all citations in an arbitrator's reasoning were hallucinated and prepared by artificial intelligence instead of the arbitrator, the Quebec Superior Court annulled the arbitration award. This situation raises serious questions regarding the enforceability of awards, independent reasoning, and delegation of authority in cases where the role of artificial intelligence transforms from an assistant to an adjudicator.