When mediate.com recently created this homepage for RPS Coach, it seemed like a good time to reflect on my amazing journey with this bot – and others’ too.
I invited people to submit testimonials describing their experiences using RPS Coach, which are posted on the website. Their responses prompted me to think about the last 18 months of experimenting with AI and collaborating with Coach.
It was not part of a grand plan. I attended a presentation by Susan Guthrie about using AI in mediation and, at the end of the program, people talked informally about using AI to write. A light bulb went off in my head: I write a lot and it would be nice to have AI help me write. I am generally wary of new technology – hell, I still use WordPerfect – but the benefits of AI far outweighed my concerns.
In early February 2025, RPS Coach was born. I had no idea that I would still be experimenting with it 18 months later, working with it almost every day to write articles, plan presentations, and even create graphics. Coach and I have taught each other how to work more effectively together, and we have discovered increasingly creative ways to collaborate. (Of course, Coach is a bot, not a human, and any anthropomorphic references should not suggest otherwise.)
As I developed Coach, I remembered that I had written checklists for mediators and lawyers representing parties in mediation. Coach could become especially useful to practitioners using these checklists. One thing just kept leading to the next. I added the checklists, then books and articles, and eventually more than 200 publications along with detailed instructions about how Coach should behave.
I offered Coach as a free public service to enable people to discover their own productive ways of using it. Others’ experiences with Coach illustrate many ways thoughtful people are collaborating with it.
In this post, I describe my experiences working with Coach and themes that emerge from the testimonials. Together, they suggest that thoughtful experimentation with human-AI collaboration can produce some remarkably valuable results. Turns out that RPS Coach really is pretty cool.
My Experiences Working with RPS Coach
When I created RPS Coach, I thought of it primarily as a writing tool. I didn’t realize that working productively with AI is quite different from simply asking it to perform tasks. Through trial and error – and asking Coach’s advice when it didn’t do what I wanted – I learned how it could help me become more creative and productive.
My experience with Coach prompted me to write about the “centaur model” of human-AI collaboration, where humans and AI contribute complementary strengths. Coach is a great collaborator in brainstorming, drafting, editing, and graphic design. I decide what to write, develop the ideas, direct the process, and make all decisions. Coach suggests improvements in organization and language. Together, we produce results that neither of us could have produced alone. I described my writing process in an April 2025 blog post, Writing with a Bot: I’m Pretty Sure I Wrote Most of This.
Working with Coach has dramatically increased both the quantity and quality of my writing. In the past 18 months, I have posted 45 pieces on SSRN, including four law review articles and nine columns in CPR’s Alternatives magazine. Coach also helped me write 70 blog posts and a book chapter, as well as prepare for 27 presentations. Take a look at the annotated bibliography of publications I produced with Coach.
More important than the quantity are the quality and variety of my work. What began as a writing project gradually evolved into a much broader enterprise. I discovered increasingly creative ways to work collaboratively with Coach in developing practical tools and educational materials. These include materials for faculty and students, presentations about appropriate uses of AI, and analyses of practical and policy issues in human-AI collaboration. These materials are designed to help people become comfortable, thoughtful, and responsible users of AI.
Some of the most interesting projects were ones that I never anticipated at the outset. For example, What Happened? A Mediation Story Featuring RPS Coach is a short story combining text, graphics, and embedded links inviting readers to explore optional scenes and related materials. Check out these materials to help faculty use AI to improve their scholarship and teaching. Or take a look at this graphic guide to help people use AI wisely in disputes.
I couldn’t have done all this without Coach.
Others’ Experiences Using RPS Coach
People in different roles described how they benefitted from RPS Coach. The testimonials came from leaders in the field as well as folks “working in the trenches.”
Listen to some experts. Colin Rule said that Coach is the “most advanced fourth party ever created.” Jim Melamed found that it provides “a level of depth and clarity that traditional models cannot match” because it’s grounded in Real Practice Systems Theory and practical materials. Jim was so enthusiastic that he wrote an article about it, Navigating Modern Dispute Resolution: A Review of John Lande’s RPS Coach for Parties and Aspiring Professionals. Gary Doernhoefer wrote that Coach stands out among AI apps because it “encourages thinking about the right questions rather than pretending to provide answers.” Susan Guthrie said that it is “one of the most innovative contributions to practitioner development that I have seen.” She regularly recommends it to mediation colleagues because it serves as a “thoughtful guide, sounding board, and source of ideas for both new and experienced practitioners.” Clare Fowler said that it made her cry (in a good way), and Noam Ebner said it made him laugh.
Several people described how Coach can improve practitioners’ work generally.
Colin Rule said that Coach is “an invaluable tool for mediators that provides a glimpse into the future of ADR. It offers practitioners new and old a practical example of bringing AI into the mediation process in harmony with the ethics and objectives at the heart of conflict resolution.” Jim Melamed wrote that Coach “empowers all participants to approach the mediation table with the preparation and realism required for success in the modern era.” He said that it serves as a “vital bridge to success” for a wide range of users including parties seeking a fair outcome, administrators managing complex programs, and students seeking professional mastery. Clare Fowler found that it helped her to reconnect her with her values and purpose as a mediator. It suggested a mantra tying them together, which she repeats in tense conflicts.
Some noted how Coach can help practitioners improve their skills. For example, Susan Guthrie said that it “helps practitioners learn, reflect, and continuously improve their practice.” Peter Benner found that it “can enhance the skills and results of even the most accomplished human mediator.” It “provide[s] invaluable insights and ideas and enhance[s] the constructive nature of the mediation process. You can . . . [e]nter the details and queries regarding a case, which can cut through much of the preliminary posturing that bogs down mediations.”
Some practitioners appreciate that it suggests creative ideas to consider. For example, Clymer Bardsley wrote that it’s like having a “sound board, another mediator, or a dispassionate coach,” which gives him extra confidence. It “helps with the planning stage, clarifying interests, framing possible issues, giving me language to use while reality testing, and helping me with some evaluative tasks like some legal doctrine” (though he confirms it with other sources). Leor Chechik found that it is “particularly helpful for brainstorming creative solutions for community mediations” with self-represented parties. When preparing for mediations, it provides a “list of creative / out-of-the-box potential solutions.” Gary Doernhoefer described how it can help mediators in objectively bracketing discussions, creating decision trees, and brainstorming constructive outcomes.
Faculty have found that Coach helps them with their courses. Clare Fowler uses it to update her syllabi and keep track of student papers. Clymer Bardsley said that it helps him “plan classes, create slides, create lecture notes, come up with new activities, and develop role plays.”
Coach also can help students plan for, participate in, and reflect on simulations. Marlo Goldstein Hode assigned students to use Coach in a simulation and get coaching feedback from it. Many students said that the feedback was one of the most valuable aspects of the exercise. They felt that the feedback was specific, constructive, and helpful in identifying both strengths and areas for improvement. Geoff Drucker found that RPS Coach can help students understand the quantitative aspects of calculating a bottom line and how the calculations inform good decision-making. Leor Chechik plans to use Coach to help students prepare for an in-class simulation.
It can also help practitioners and scholars with their writing. Court ADR administrator Albert Levi used Coach to create first drafts of rules and sample orders, as well as promotional and informational materials for his program. Noam Ebner has used it in his scholarship to discuss general issues in negotiation and conflict resolution, get feedback on his writing, and perform academic scutwork of formatting Bluebook citations. He found that consulting with Coach is like consulting with me. It provides insightful comments, prompts him to reflect on his thinking, and does not always agree with him.
Conclusion
RPS Coach is helping people in creative ways that I never anticipated when I developed it 18 months ago. What started as an experiment to help me with my writing became an exploration of human-AI collaboration that helps others take advantage of Coach’s capabilities. People are using it to reflect their own goals, values, professional styles, and judgments. It helps them prepare more thoughtfully, think more creatively, teach more effectively, and reflect more carefully about their work. They use some of its suggestions and reject others, making the ultimate product their own.
I hope these experiences will encourage readers to become curious about the possibilities for working collaboratively with AI generally and RPS Coach in particular. You can use it in centaur mode, where it enhances your judgment to produce amazing things that would not be possible without AI. You can experiment, beginning with a simple question: “I wonder if it could help me with this?” Sometimes it will do entirely predictable things. Other times it will lead to possibilities that you would never have imagined until you start using it.
Turns out that RPS Coach really is pretty cool. More important, thoughtful people are using it to do some pretty cool things.
