03 Jan. Negotiating in the Age of AI - An Interview with Dr. Markus Rarbach

Hello Markus, you’ve led high-responsibility negotiations for more than 20 years. Looking back, what’s the core takeaway for you?

Negotiations can feel very different depending on context – company cultures, regions, people, and pressure. What I’ve learned is how important it is to treat negotiation as a discipline in its own right, not just as a means to an end. When you do that, you start recognizing patterns and reading dynamics more clearly. That structure frees up mental space when it matters most.

Bringing together technology, finance, legal aspects, logistics, strategy, and personalities is complex. That’s why structure and quality aren’t optional – they’re essential.

Then AI entered the picture. What changed with AI?

At first, it was simply striking to see what suddenly became possible through AI. Today, AI drafts emails, summarizes documents, runs scenarios, and supports preparation – on both sides of the table. At some point, Jutta and I began taking a closer look at the topic and revisiting it again and again.

AI is clearly transformative – but only if it’s embedded properly in negotiation contexts. That led to a coherent concept: C-TO-BE Negotiation Intelligence, connecting capabilities, process, and AI. That’s what we outline in our 12-part series. Ignoring AI isn’t an option, and the gap between AI-savvy and hesitant negotiators is continuing to widen.

We often hear negotiators ask: “Why not just ask ChatGPT?”

You absolutely can – and we do it ourselves all the time. AI is often intuitively convincing, and sometimes that’s sufficient. But “convincing” doesn’t mean correct, complete, or responsible. In negotiations, later corrections are often impossible. Once something is said, it’s out there: a proposal is made, information is shared, or an ego is bruised. That’s why intuition alone isn’t enough.

C-TO-BE Negotiation Intelligence adds a frame: it integrates AI’s strengths while keeping decisions reviewable and accountable.

A question many negotiators worry about: Will AI eventually replace us at the negotiation table?

That’s a fascinating – and naturally speculative – question. Technically, AI will negotiate more autonomously in certain settings, especially repetitive or distributive ones. But responsibility remains human – ethically and legally. AI will change how we negotiate, not who is accountable. And because AI is non-deterministic, clear processes and rules become even more important.

That will only change if and when we move from today’s generative AI to a truly general form of artificial intelligence – a shift that would be far more fundamental.

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