Bilateral and Multi-bilateral Agent-Human Negotiations: Two Experiments

Negotiation is a flexible mechanism for facilitating effective economic exchanges. Electronic negotiations allow participants to negotiate online and use analytical support tools in making their decisions. Software agents can be employed to automate partially or fully the conduct of negotiation process using these tools. This paper aims at investigating the prospects of agent-to-human negotiations in B2C contexts using experiments with human subjects. Two sets of experiments are described: one including bilateral agent-human negotiations, and the other involving multi-bilateral negotiations with agents competing against other participants on the "many" side. The paper discusses the results obtained from both studies and proposes future research directions.