On August 19, 2026, guided by the Shanghai Industry Association of Artificial Intelligence (SAIA) and co-hosted by the Shanghai International Arbitration Center (SHIAC), the Shanghai Changning District Justice Bureau and Llinks Law Offices, the seminar on "Commercial Risks and Arbitration Responses in the AI Era" was successfully held at the SHIAC conference hall. Nearly a hundred experts, scholars and practitioners from the AI industry, universities, law firms and arbitration institutions attended the event to jointly discuss the new characteristics of commercial risks and the new pathways of arbitration responses in the AI era.
SHIAC Secretary-General Ms. Weijun Wang delivered the welcome speech for the seminar. Secretary-General Wang proposed that arbitration should actively adapt to the procedural changes brought by technology, adhere to the bottom line of rule application and award fairness, and balance embracing technological innovation with safeguarding the values of arbitration due process, confidentiality, data security, good faith and expert adjudication. She further suggested the necessity of formulating AI application specifications, which could be achieved by referring to the EU's risk classification approach to distinguish between low-risk administrative support matters and high-risk core adjudication matters. Concurrently, she stated that SHIAC will safeguard the development of new productive forces through measures such as bringing in arbitrators with AI expertise and establishing coordination mechanisms for related cases, calling on all parties to jointly research and construct AI application guidelines for arbitration.
Shanghai Changning District Justice Bureau Party Committee Secretary and Director-General Ms. Weiqin Wang delivered a welcome speech. Director Wang pointed out that Changning District has consistently adhered to the construction of the Hongqiao International Open Hub and the strategic guidance of "Digital Changning", accelerating its transformation from a major digital economy district to a powerhouse of the digital and intelligent economy. The district is currently building the Hongqiao International Central Legal District Linkage Innovation Zone to high standards. She proposed three major directions: gathering the power of the rule of law to escort enterprises, seeking professional knowledge to promote efficient dispute resolution and continuing the pioneering spirit to lead the digital future.
Shanghai Shangzhi Xingxie Technology Co., Ltd. General Manager Mr. Tao Shen delivered a speech on behalf of SAIA. Mr. Shen analyzed three new characteristics of commercial risks in the AI era: the forward-shifting of uncertainty, blurred subjects of responsibility and the difficulty in quantifying damage consequences. He pointed out that against the backdrop of the current AI era, arbitration has advantages in confidentiality, cross-border enforceability and professionalism, and introduced SAIA's work in standard setting and building compliance service channels.
The first roundtable discussion, themed "AI Transactions: Valuation, Delivery and Breach of Contract Liabilities," was moderated by Llinks partner Mr. Colin Shi. The panelists included SHIAC Deputy Secretary-General Mr. Guang Yang; ASML (Shanghai) Lithography Equipment Technology Co., Ltd. Head of Legal and Compliance (China) Mr. Le Yi; Shanghai Yanhua Smartech Group Co., Ltd. Executive President Mr. Guojing Li; SHIAC Arbitrator Mr. Xiang Zeng; and Llinks contractual partner Mr. Jerome Tang.
ASML Head of Legal and Compliance (China) Mr. Le Yi analyzed the commercial risks brought to AI enterprises by geopolitics and export controls from the perspective of the upstream supply chain. He pointed out the risks of delivery delays and contract breaches caused by supply chain tensions resulting from exacerbated cyclical fluctuations in the semiconductor industry.
Starting from the perspective of a smart city operator, Shanghai Yanhua Smartech Group Co., Ltd. Executive President Mr. Guojing Li discussed the problem of ambiguous delivery standards caused by the non-linear characteristics of AI products, as well as the difficulties in determining breach of contract liabilities caused by factors such as data drift and environmental changes. He also shared practical attempts to clarify testing standards and allocate responsibilities for data drift thresholds through contract clauses.
Llinks contractual partner Mr. Jerome Tang analyzed common cross-border structures of AI startups and explored the resulting difficulties in selecting and enforcing dispute resolution clauses. Furthermore, starting from the dependence of valuation on recurring revenue and core teams, he shared the phenomenon of "acqui-hiring" emerging overseas.
SHIAC Arbitrator Mr. Xiang Zeng pointed out that AI investment disputes are characterized by high valuation volatility, difficulties in determining technical milestones and strong reliance on key personnel, and are prone to disputes such as data infringement and content compliance on the delivery end. He emphasized that legal professionals need to deeply understand the industry's technical logic to cope with highly specialized disputes.
Combining specific cases, SHIAC Deputy Secretary-General Mr. Guang Yang outlined the potential legal risks in areas such as liability allocation for AI virtual human live streaming, infringement by AI-generated content and loss bearing. He also introduced SHIAC's practice of moderately applying AI technology in segments like case filing and award generation, as well as the status of building a pool of professional arbitrator talents.
The second roundtable discussion, themed "Empowerment or Risk: AI Application Risks and Arbitration Responses," was moderated by Llinks partner Mr. Yiwen Zhang. The panel included SAIA Vice Chairman Ms. Yuwei Yin; Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Law School Deputy Dean, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor Mr. Xiaozhe Zhu; Costco China Legal Director Ms. Guangying Zhang; Northland Software Co., Ltd. Intelligent Dispute Resolution Division General Manager and Doctor of Law Mr. Wenli Guo; and Llinks partner Mr. Peiming Yang.
Costco China Legal Director Ms. Guangying Zhang stated that from an enterprise's perspective, AI applications have empowerment values such as enhancing productivity, replacing standardized processes and making order management transparent. However, they also present risk challenges like member data security, risks across the entire retail chain and backend data compliance. She emphasized that enterprises should carefully select AI suppliers and strengthen internal control and compliance, seeking a balance between empowerment and risk.
SAIA Vice Chairman Ms. Yuwei Yin analyzed that AI application risks have hierarchical characteristics, involving disputes over intellectual property infringement, personal data privacy and business compliance. She suggested that, given the relative lag in legislation and judicial precedents, "standards should come first," promoting the construction of group and industry standards to address highly specialized AI application risks.
Llinks partner Mr. Peiming Yang pointed out that AI financial advisory features manual labor replacement, 24/7 availability, active creative dialogue and cost reduction and efficiency enhancement, but also faces controversies such as the easy breach of suitability obligations, difficulties in evidence preservation and unclear definitions of entrusted liability. He warned that under the background of lagging legislation and strong financial regulation, the widespread application of AI in the promotion of financial products will make disputes between investors and financial institutions, as well as between financial institutions and AI developers, a point of explosive growth in arbitration cases. He recommended that investors properly preserve AI chat logs and immediately notarize them to prevent respondents from deleting or altering data; financial institutions must strictly adhere to the risk red line of suitability obligations, refine parameters and compliance responsibility allocation in entrustment contracts, and make necessary declarations and risk warnings regarding AI outputs.
Shanghai University of Finance and Economics Law School Deputy Dean, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor Mr. Xiaozhe Zhu divided AI liability into three categories: developer algorithmic defects, user operational faults and joint infringement by both, analyzing each respectively. He also reminded the audience that after arbitration institutions introduce AI, how to correct errors and determine liability attribution remains a future challenge to be resolved.
Northland Software Co., Ltd. Intelligent Dispute Resolution Division General Manager and Doctor of Law Mr. Wenli Guo posited that AI application in the dispute resolution field is just beginning, characterized by lagging procedural rules, lack of evidentiary standards and reinforced algorithmic bias, along with controversies over data confidentiality and party reliance. He suggested that arbitration institutions leverage the advantages of closed-loop data to enhance rule supply capacity, driving intelligent case assignment and batch adjudication through business-first and technology-following approaches, while employing strong manual intervention for real-time bias correction to ensure AI seamlessly integrates into the entire dispute resolution process.
The founding partner of Llinks and Shanghai Arbitration Association President Mr. David Yu delivered the closing speech. Mr. Yu pointed out that with frequent updates of AI models and the continuous acceleration of technological iteration, the trend of rapid improvement in AI intelligence has taken shape. In this context, the legal profession faces multiple problems such as a lack of rules, difficulties in obtaining evidence and the enforceability of awards being challenged by new technologies. He suggested that the judicial practice sector should actively pay attention to the application of AI technologies, while academia and the legislature should strengthen the exploration, research, formulation and revision of AI-related laws and regulations. In the realm of arbitration practice, a tiered application strategy can be adopted: procedural matters are handled by AI, legal research is assisted by AI, but the adjudication portion must still be led by arbitrators. By leveraging AI technology to practically improve the efficiency of legal research, evidence discovery and document generation, the goal of pushing Shanghai's arbitration cause to a higher level can be realized.
