Introducing ClauseBuilder® AI (Beta) and API Innovations: Streamlining Arbitration and Mediation Clause-drafting with Generative AI
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By Caitlin Saint-Jean
The AAA® has launched ClauseBuilder AI (Beta), a generative AI (GenAI) tool designed to simplify drafting arbitration and mediation clauses while introducing new efficiencies through application programming interfaces (APIs). The tool leverages natural language processing to enable users to create alternative dispute resolution (ADR) clauses aligned with AAA standards, offering precision and customization. Additionally, the new APIs streamline case administration by facilitating seamless data exchange, filing, and tracking for users managing multiple cases. Below, AAA leaders provide insights into these developments: Chief Information and Innovation Officer Diana Didia emphasizes collaboration with the legal team for clause accuracy and the strategic use of APIs; Software Development & Operations Vice President Yogesh Chaudhari highlights the intuitive design of the tool; and President and CEO Bridget McCormack discusses the AAA’s mission to enhance dispute resolution through accessible and innovative technology.
Q: ClauseBuilder AI is an innovative GenAI tool that streamlines the process of drafting clear and effective arbitration and mediation clauses. Can you tell us a little about the development?
Diana Didia: As chief information and innovation officer, my job was to make sure there was close collaboration with our legal department to review the outputs for their accuracy. At each stage, we presented the AI-generated ADR clauses to our legal team, who would quickly point out areas that needed improvement. Their feedback—such as clarifying that a clause didn’t meet the AAA’s standards or wasn’t quite accurate—helped guide our prompt engineering, something we as technologists couldn’t have done alone. This process felt like a form of co-programming, where technical development and legal expertise came together to shape a robust, reliable tool.
Yogesh Chaudhari: Last year, in a meeting, we had an exciting idea: why not harness the power of natural language processing to let users draft their clauses using simple, everyday language? Instead of navigating through the lengthy 12-page, step-by-step drafting process of our classic ClauseBuilder, which, while thorough, can be quite daunting, we envisioned a more user-friendly approach. Our goal was to create a tool that allows users to articulate their needs directly in natural language, without the hassle of endless clicking and tabbing. That is how ClauseBuilder AI was born.
Andrew Kritzler (Junior Software Developer, IS): We used a new resource called Vellum AI, which is an online platform that enables rapid development of workflows powered by large language models (LLMs). Through this platform, we designed workflows that process user queries by running them through LLMs, enabling efficient text searches and other automated tasks. This innovative approach allows us to enhance the user experience while maintaining the precision and clarity the AAA is known for.
Bridget McCormack: We developed ClauseBuilder AI with the goal of simplifying and improving the drafting of arbitration and mediation clauses. Leveraging GenAI provides clear, customizable clause options that adhere to the AAA standards, helping users create effective ADR clauses tailored to their needs. This tool is an opening offering in our product roadmap to enhance user experience.
Q: It's great that anyone from the AAA can submit suggestions through BrightIdea. How do ideas go from concept to development?
Diana Didia: My role in the concept-to-development process involves shaping the strategic vision for our technological initiatives and ensuring we have a clear, actionable scope that balances feasibility with significant impact. During this period of rapid development, it is my responsibility to ensure my team has the support needed to explore and implement these solutions. Once an idea takes shape, we dive into it, excited by the possibilities. From there, we focus on a specific use case: "What can we do with this?" Meanwhile, the technology landscape continues to evolve, and the Innovation team plays a crucial role in keeping us updated.
Yogesh Chaudhari: Typically, the process begins with the Innovation team and the business team assessing the idea's viability and necessity. Once vetted, the concept is passed on to us, the development team, to evaluate its technological feasibility. This is where our discussions begin. We hold weekly steering committee GenAI meetings, where we discuss new initiatives. For larger projects, we schedule separate meetings to dive deeper into the technical feasibility. This structured approach ensures that we can effectively assess and develop innovative solutions.
Bridget McCormack: At the AAA, we’re committed to fostering a culture of innovation and continuous improvement. Through BrightIdea, every team member has a voice in shaping our future. When an idea is submitted, we review it for its potential to advance our mission and benefit our stakeholders. We move selected ideas through a collaborative development process, ensuring they align with our strategic vision and have the support needed for successful implementation. This approach allows us to stay agile, responsive and focused on enhancing our services and impact.
Q: Are there any enhancements to ClauseBuilder AI that you’re working on or hope to develop?
Yogesh Chaudhari: One feature we’re looking to implement in ClauseBuilder AI is the ability to validate user-submitted ADR clauses. Currently, many contracts are drafted by lawyers, and while some include the AAA’s recommended ADR language, others do not. Our goal is to create a tool where users can input their existing arbitration or mediation clauses, and, in return, receive AAA’s recommended language tailored to their needs. This enhancement would ensure that users’ clauses align with AAA standards, making it easier to create clear, effective ADR agreements. Another exciting project in progress involves using AI to extract data from demand forms at the start of a case, addressing a major bottleneck in manual data entry. Automating even 60-70% of this task would greatly enhance efficiency and free up valuable time for our teams. As new, more powerful AI models emerge with fewer errors, we’re adopting these tools to improve our workflows and services. We’re committed to integrating GenAI to better serve our users and drive innovation forward.
Bridget McCormack: As we continue enhancing this tool, we're focused on making it even more intuitive and effective for users. We're actively exploring expanding its capabilities, particularly by incorporating more tailored guidance and interactive elements to streamline clause creation. Another area we're prioritizing is integrating advanced AI to support real-time, contextual suggestions, ensuring that users can craft precise, enforceable clauses for any dispute resolution context.
Q: Are there any lessons are key takeaways from working on ClauseBuilder AI that you could apply to future projects?
Diana Didia: In developing tools like ClauseBuilder, a key takeaway is that success comes from real-time collaboration between technologists and domain experts. Traditionally, software development can involve long cycles—where teams gather requirements, disappear to build the product and return months later with a solution. Often, that approach results in delays when the end product doesn't fully meet the needs. At each stage, we presented the AI-generated clauses to our legal team, who would quickly point out areas that needed improvement. Their feedback—such as clarifying that a clause didn’t meet the relevant standards or wasn’t quite accurate—helped guide our prompt engineering, something we as technologists couldn’t have done alone.
Yogesh Chaudhari: We’re entering a whole new world with GenAI, which has unlocked many opportunities for integration. It’s not just about building new products anymore—GenAI is also transforming the way we optimize our existing processes. There are now tools available that allow you to refine or cross-verify your prompts, further improving the output and efficiency. The trend is shifting toward adopting GenAI in standard application development, not necessarily to create new products but to optimize existing workflows. At the AAA, we’re embracing this approach as well.
Andrew Kritzler: One key takeaway from our work with generative AI is that traditional development methodologies don’t always apply seamlessly. While certain tasks can be accomplished reliably using conventional programming techniques, AI projects like our ClauseBuilder tool present unique challenges. For example, the user interaction with the application may follow a straightforward workflow. However, guiding large language models—whether it’s ChatGPT, Claude or Gemini—to replicate those steps in drafting precise ADR clauses is far from simple. It requires a distinct approach, blending innovation with AI's unique capabilities. At the AAA, we are learning to adapt and refine our methods to unlock the full potential of these transformative technologies.
Bridget McCormack: Working on ClauseBuilder AI highlighted the need for a deep understanding of user needs, adaptability and collaboration. Engaging end-users throughout the development process ensured we built a tool that’s both intuitive and impactful. Collaboration between tech experts and legal professionals was crucial for aligning technical capabilities with legal insights. Moving forward, we’ll continue these design principles—user-focus, cross-disciplinary teamwork and scalability—to drive meaningful innovation in dispute resolution.
Q: The new APIs enable parties with multiple cases to streamline case administration by efficiently sending and receiving documents, filing new cases and tracking case-related activities. What problem do these APIs aim to solve?
Diana Didia: APIs aren't new technology—they've been around for a long time and are quite basic. Whenever you're exchanging data with external partners, vendors or customers, secure connections (or "handshakes") are established to protect that data. We've long known how to integrate APIs into our systems, especially for various caseloads. When we saw a rapid increase in consumer caseloads, we decided to create a filing API and a document-sharing API to streamline the process. But we would build one-off API’s, specific to the law firm we were working with at the time, and then shelve the product. So we asked ourselves, “Why aren't we promoting these APIs more aggressively?” The idea was that if law firms frequently file through our API, they might be more inclined to choose us as their go-to arbitration provider. Even in cases where the AAA isn’t explicitly named in the contract, if firms are already connected to our system, they'd be more likely to use us due to the convenience. The goal was to increase our brand recognition with law firms, making them more likely to choose the AAA for arbitration simply because of how seamlessly we integrate with their systems. It’s less about the novelty of the technology and more about how we leverage it to strengthen relationships and streamline operations.
Rona Liza Villaverde (AVP, Software Development and Data Engineering, IS): At the AAA, we manage a lot of mass arbitration caseloads and our APIs provide a direct interface, allowing clients to submit cases and documents seamlessly, without manual intervention. Clients can integrate our APIs into their systems, enabling automatic case submissions at any time. Once received, we validate, configure and load cases into our database. This automation enhances efficiency, accuracy and streamlines the client experience for managing mass arbitration cases.
Bernardo Sosa (Junior Software Developer, IS): We’re simplifying case submissions by providing a direct interface that eliminates manual filing. Clients can automatically feed data into our system, reducing errors and speeding up the process. Even if clients have their own automation systems, our APIs integrate seamlessly, making managing large volumes of cases easier and more efficient. We’re committed to making arbitration faster and more streamlined for our clients.
Bridget McCormack: The APIs address a critical challenge faced by parties managing multiple cases: the need for a streamlined, efficient way to handle high volumes of case activity. Previously, these parties often had to navigate repetitive, manual processes to file cases, track updates and exchange documents. We designed our APIs to simplify and automate these tasks, making case administration faster and more consistent. By directly integrating our systems, the APIs save time, reduce the risk of error and allow users to focus more on resolving disputes effectively rather than on administrative tasks.
Q: With the development of these APIs, how do you ensure data security and confidentiality with sensitive case information?
Rona Liza Villaverde: Before launching, we collaborated closely with our security team to ensure a secure and efficient rollout. We’ve developed two types of APIs: inbound APIs for receiving case filings and documents, and outbound APIs for updating case statuses and sending documents back to clients. For inbound APIs, we use a dedicated whitelisting process that allows only authorized IP addresses to connect, enhancing security. Our tech services team oversees this process. For outbound APIs, clients provide authentication details and approved IP addresses, ensuring secure connections. These advancements not only strengthen security but also streamline collaboration with our clients, making the arbitration process smoother and more efficient.
Bridget McCormack: Ensuring data security and confidentiality is a top priority in all our technological advancements at the AAA, especially with API development. We employ rigorous security protocols, including encryption, secure access controls and regular audits, to protect sensitive case information. Additionally, we adhere to industry-leading data protection standards and comply with all relevant legal and regulatory requirements to safeguard confidentiality. Our commitment to privacy and data security remains foundational as we expand our digital tools to better serve our users and partners in the dispute resolution field.
Q: Can you speak more to how the APIs drive efficiency and effectiveness?
Rona Liza Villaverde: The API integration streamlines case management for clients by allowing them to submit cases directly from their own applications with a single click, bypassing the need to go through our intake team or website. When documents are uploaded from the client’s system, our API automatically provides real-time updates, eliminating duplicate entries and saving time. Additionally, our outbound API enables seamless document transfers, integrating files directly into the client's case management system, removing the need for email exchanges. This integration simplifies workflows, reduces manual processes and enhances efficiency for our clients.
Bernardo Sosa: Keep in mind that this system operates 24/7, so time zones are irrelevant. It doesn't matter whether we have a resource available in the office; if cases are submitted at 12 a.m., they will be processed without delay. The API can handle far more volume than any person could—hundreds or even thousands of cases—processing them effortlessly. This capability not only increases capacity but also significantly speeds up the entire process.
Bridget McCormack: Our API integrations enhance both efficiency and effectiveness by enabling seamless, real-time data sharing between our systems and clients. This reduces repetitive data entry, minimizes human error and accelerates case management. By allowing clients to access case updates and submit documents directly within their systems, we provide faster, more reliable resolutions—all while maintaining our high standards in dispute resolution.
Q: Do you have any API enhancements or future projects you’re working on?
Rona Lisa Villaverde: We're developing a robust API focused on real-time event updates, designed to keep clients fully informed on all case-related activities. This API will provide timely notifications on key milestones, such as upcoming scheduled events, hearings and any changes in case status. Our goal is to make case management more transparent, efficient, and user-centric, supporting smoother operations and better communication. This API marks a big step toward more proactive, real-time case management for all our clients.
Diana Didia: We are relaunching our AAAi Panelist Search for commercial arbitration, set to debut before Christmas with a brand-new chat-based UX powered by generative AI. This refreshed tool offers faster, smarter searches and a sleek, modern interface. Additionally, we’re enhancing document handling in Panelist eCenter® and AAA WebFile®. A new "summarize" button will provide instant AI-powered summaries of selected case documents, and you’ll be able to use a Q&A function to ask specific document-related questions directly within the tool.
But overall, governance is truly the next chapter. For us to start using these new technologies more widely, everyone—industry leaders, tech experts, legal, compliance teams—we’re all in this together, working with something brand new. We’re navigating uncharted territory side by side, which makes governance all the more essential. As we build and implement, we’re laying the groundwork, creating standards, and establishing a framework for responsible use. This isn't just about tech for tech's sake; it's about crafting a foundation that ensures fairness, accountability and transparency across the board.