Acas Turns to AI To Tackle Rising Workplace Disputes

Acas, the UK state-funded conciliation body, is planning to use AI to handle workplace disputes, which are expected to surge as new employment rights take effect.

Acas chief executive Niall Mackenzie declared that the organization needs to explore innovative solutions to address its rising workload. “My main fear [over the impact of the employment rights bill] is the quantity of work,” he told the Financial Times.

“We want to make sure our service remains as good despite the increase. That’s where use of technology, we hope, will help, with AI tools to help our staff,” he added.

Mackenzie even floated the idea of automated rulings. “Wouldn’t it be lovely if the two parties [in a dispute] could submit their claims against each other in writing and the machine made the decision?” he said.

But he added that such “blue sky” ideas would require government funding and at least three to four years of development to ensure reliability.

For now, Acas is taking “baby steps” with IT upgrades and AI tools to help staff manage more calls. The Financial Times notes that these changes come as ministers push extensive parliamentary reforms, including controversial measures such as day one protection against unfair dismissal.

Acas successfully resolves more than 70% of individual disputes before tribunal proceedings and settles 90% of collective disputes. The organization needs to sustain its current case resolution success rate while reducing the average cost of resolving cases by 20%. “The main driver of cost reduction will be technology,” Mackenzie said to the Financial Times.

Acas has experienced a continuous increase in dispute cases since the pandemic started, with 35,000 cases in 2020-21 reaching 43,000 cases in 2024-25. The Financial Times says that the combination of rising layoffs and discrimination cases, as well as prolonged tribunal delays, creates mounting pressure on the conciliation body.

However, relying heavily on AI tools could undermine trust in Acas’s role as a mediator. Automated rulings have the negative potential to oversimplify complex, sensitive disputes, which may require human judgment and empathy.

Technology-driven cost reduction could also pressure staff to prioritize speed over quality. If workers or employers perceive the process as impersonal or biased, it could also damage Acas’s credibility and discourage parties from engaging with its services.