An experimental study of software agent negotiations with humans

• An experiment in software agent – human negotiations is described.
• Agents employed different negotiation tactics.
• The negotiation case involving purchase of a computer was used.
• Subjects were university students.
• Overall, software agents outperformed human negotiators.

Electronic negotiations allow participants to negotiate online and use analytical support tools in making their decisions. Software agents offer the possibility of automating negotiation process using these tools. This paper aims at investigating the prospects of agent-to-human negotiations using experiments with human subjects. Various types of agents have been configured using the following tactics: individualistic, neutral, yielding, yielding-then-individualistic, and absolute tit-for-tat. These agents were paired up with human counterparts for negotiating product sale. A set of hypotheses has been proposed involving the performance of agents, as well as humans in terms of objective, as well as subjective measures. Overall, the findings speak in favor of agent-managed negotiations.