How are new procurement approaches, policies, and politics affecting disputes in major programmes? As collaborative and alliance models continue to rise in popularity, the old disputes playbook is rapidly being rewritten. It’s an exploration perfectly suited to Uncharted Conversations, so Riccardo and Melissa Di Marco take aim at the ways dispute resolution is evolving—courtroom litigation and boardroom negotiations, data-driven forensics, and increasingly AI-assisted workflows.

The focus on alliance-style contracts is shifting fault lines and muddying traditional supply chain relationships within the industry. Legal grey zones introduced by expanding digital components are challenging the dispute landscape, and algorithms are having an outsized influence on expert analysis. Melissa also breaks down why environmental disputes are primed to be the next big thing. This episode explores how teams delivering major infrastructure projects must adapt not only their contracts but also their thinking to resolve issues in an industry where the source of conflict, and the tools to address it, are changing fast.

Key Takeaways

• Why alliance contracts still allow certain claims—and why that matters;
• How AI and data tools are transforming the speed, scope, and tone of dispute resolution;
• Dispute review boards (DRBs) and the change in venue of major project disputes;
• Detailed specifics of how delay analysis goes forward in disputes;
• How responsibility shifts when AI agents begin making the decisions.

Quote:

“Data won’t eliminate disputes. It might potentially weaponize them in some way, because you can take the same dataset and one party can cherry pick whatever set of data to help them tell a different story, so we might actually see disputes about data about disputes”. - Melissa Di Marco

The conversation doesn’t stop here—connect and converse with our community via LinkedIn:

• Follow Navigating Major Programmes: https://www.linkedin.com/company/navigating-major-programmes/
• Follow Riccardo Cosentino: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cosentinoriccardo/
• Follow Melissa Di Marco: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-di-marco/
• Read Riccardo’s latest at: https://riccardocosentino.com/

Music: "A New Tomorrow" by Chordial Music. Licensed through PremiumBeat.