Hot on HuffPost Tech:

See More Stories
AOL Tech

Can Artificial-Intelligence 'Ninjas' Find the Best Price on the Web?

Fixed-price shopping is for the birds, especially on the Internet. How do you know if you're really getting the best deal possible? Well, a new Web service hopes to take care of those worries.

Aroxo, a shopping site, will debut a program called 'Negotiating Ninjas' this Fall, BBC News reports. Designed by researchers at Southampton University, the 'Ninjas,' which will be fully operational by Christmas, function as artificial-intelligence 'agents' for shoppers and sellers, negotiating the best prices possible for both. In order to reach a middle ground, a shopper and seller answer a number of questions -- from how much they're willing to pay to how eager they are to sell a product. Then, an 'agent' uses heuristics -- a set of rules used to find the best answer in situations where there's no single 'correct' one -- to make offers until the item is sold or someone leaves the negotiations.

Aroxo says the service is free, but users must pay the site .3-percent of the buyer's original asking price just to contact someone about a sale. So, in a roundabout way, you're still paying for the 'agent.' It'll be interesting to see if folks really do get some great bargains, or if this is more trouble than it's worth. [From: BBC News]

Tags: artificial intelligence, ArtificialIntelligence, bargains, negotiations, online shopping, OnlineShopping, shopping, software, top, web

Comments

3

Add your comments

Please keep your comments relevant to this blog entry. Email addresses are never displayed, but they are required to confirm your comments.

When you enter your name and email address, you'll be sent a link to confirm your comment, and a password. To leave another comment, just use that password.

To create a live link, simply type the URL (including http://) or email address and we will make it a live link for you. You can put up to 3 URLs in your comments. Line breaks and paragraphs are automatically converted — no need to use <p> or <br /> tags.