One of the biggest challenges negotiators face is what will happen in the future. Future events are difficult to predict – in recent years the pandemic and the outbreak of war in Europe have had significant impacts on all areas of society and commerce. The next iteration that is causing people to think differently is the emergence of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at a sustained level.
This week marks the start of two divergent models of how AI means different things to different industries. The first instance is the UK’s Financial Conduct Authority announcement that it is to allow banks and other City firms to work with the US chipmaker Nvidia, to give successful applicants the chance to safely experiment under the watchdog’s supervision allowing them to use Nvidia’s accelerated computing products, as a means to encourage economic growth. Those of you reading this who use one of the so-called ‘challenger banks’, will no doubt have seen how technology can help to transform a sector. I have recently partially moved to one of them and whilst it can take time to adjust, the ability to interact directly with other banks has been a real revelation.
On the other side of the AI divide sits the creative industries - a number of creative leaders and politicians are joining forces at Parliament to stop AI firms using copyrighted music without payment or permission. The Chief Executive of UK Music said that “The Government’s proposals to rip up existing copyright laws and allow AI firms to steal the work of our creators without payment or permission would be devastating for our industry, which is why we are strongly backing these amendments to the Data (Use and Access) Bill.”
“If we fail to protect the rights of our world-beating creators and music companies, we risk losing the next generation of talent and threatening the £7.6 billion that music contributes to our economy and the 216,000 jobs the sector supports” As someone who worked in the industry and understands at close hand the devastation this could cause to artists’ livelihoods and careers, I understand their plight.
The body also states that the total creative economy is in the order of £125 billion and to get a sense of where that has had a direct impact, the CEO of WPP (which lost its position of being world's largest advertising agency to Publicis recently) announced this week that he was stepping down at the end of the year, citing the business’s inability to struggle against the rise of AI and a loss of half its value under his leadership.
At Scotwork, we’re not just observers when it comes to AI. Scotwork has recently showcased internally its first steps to understand how we can use AI to enhance our ability to develop negotiation capability for our clients and participants (future and present).
So what does this mean for negotiators? Unless you have access to a foolproof crystal ball, planning for the unknown and uncertain is critical. The key areas to address this are in Preparation:
- Ensure that you have developed alternative strategies – your counterparty will not only have a different perspective to you on how you see the negotiation; their view of future outcomes is likely to differ as well
- Develop as many Wish List & Concession List items as possible – the greater the variety you have, the more value you will be able to create, even in an uncertain future
- Ensure you have the right questions to understand as much information as you can to build your negotiation plan. Recognise that you need to test the assumptions you have made about your counterparty’s position in the Argue step
- Make sure you have developed a coherent opening statement – so you can share a clear understanding of where the key challenges are for now and the future, and get information to help you understand how you can collaboratively to manage those challenges.
