20 years of work by scientists based at Southampton University will come to fruition this autumn as AI negotiators will be released onto the web. The software, which automatically barters for shoppers looking for an online bargain, is to be trialled on electrical goods site Aroxo.
Explaining the concept, Professor Nick Jennings said “Computer agents don’t get bored, they have a lot of time, and they don’t get embarrassed. I have always thought that in an internet environment, negotiation is the way to go.” He added that a sequence of rules named heuristics are commonly used in computer science to determine the best solution, and that the AI’s will be working on this basis.
“We use heuristics to determine what price we should offer during the negotiation – and also how we might deal with multiple negotiations at the same time.” He added that “We have to factor in some degrees of uncertainty as well – the chances are that sellers will enter into more negotiations than they have stock.”
For the process to work both seller and buyer are asked a number of questions. Sellers input data on discounts, how much they want a sale, and if they’d fall to a lower price at a certain time within the day. Likewise buyers are assessed for the items they are looking for and how much they would pay. An AI negotiator then searches for appropriate matches, passing information back and forth between the two individuals until either a sale is made, or the buyer goes elsewhere.
Professor Jennings said “Fixed pricing is a relatively recent phenomenon. Throughout history most transactions have been negotiated. Only in the last 100 years have we gone for fixed pricing.”
