When Will Negotiation Agents Be Able to Represent Us? The Challenges and
Opportunities for Autonomous Negotiators
Abstract
Computers that negotiate on our behalf hold great
promise for the future and will even become indispensable in emerging application domains such as
the smart grid and the Internet of Things. Much research has thus been expended to create agents that
are able to negotiate in an abundance of circumstances. However, up until now, truly autonomous
negotiators have rarely been deployed in real-world
applications. This paper sizes up current negotiating agents and explores a number of technological,
societal and ethical challenges that autonomous negotiation systems have brought about. The questions we address are: in what sense are these systems autonomous, what has been holding back their
further proliferation, and is their spread something
we should encourage? We relate the automated negotiation research agenda to dimensions of autonomy and distill three major themes that we believe
will propel autonomous negotiation forward: accurate representation, long-term perspective, and user
trust. We argue these orthogonal research directions need to be aligned and advanced in unison to
sustain tangible progress in the field