Public Management Bulletin #29

The consideration of artificial intelligence in community mediation (CM) is unexplored terrain. CM programs assist local governments, the court system, and schools in North Carolina and across the United States. They provide conflict-resolution training and operate with a mix of paid staff and trained volunteers. The Mediation Network of North Carolina lists twelve member centers, each of which serves multiple counties or a single high-population county. CM centers offer services for neighbor-neighbor, family, consumer-business, and landlord-tenant conflicts. Some centers assist with workplace disputes, conduct Restorative Justice Circles, and facilitate community dialogues. With the rapid growth of AI platforms such as Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity, an exploratory study about how CM leaders understand and assess AI is timely. 

To begin assessing AI’s potential uses, risks, and rewards, six CM leaders were contacted to form an expert panel and were assigned several videos and one article on AI in mediation. Surveys and a focus group yielded individual and group assessments of AI’s risk, rewards, and appropriateness for CM. As local government elected leaders and agency administrators consider how AI is affecting their operations, it is useful to know how CM leaders are thinking about and using AI. Local government relationships with a variety of community-based nonprofits and civic organizations could benefit from this study of AI’s pros and cons in the eyes of CM staff and volunteers.