Negotiation Protocol Preventing Repetitive Offers
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing negotiation protocols often lead to repetitive offers, which waste negotiation time and reduce overall utility, as parties tend to repeat optimal offers until near the deadline, and protocols that terminate upon acceptance limit exploration of potentially better offers.
Innovation Solution
A negotiation protocol that prevents the repetition of previous offers and accepts all rational offers, continuing the negotiation beyond acceptance to fully explore the outcome space, thereby increasing the overall utility of the negotiation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If parties repeat optimal offers until near the deadline, then they can ensure the best possible outcome for themselves, but negotiation time is wasted and overall utility is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of the outcome space and identifies optimal offers before the negotiation deadline. By pre-calculating and presenting the best possible outcomes early in the negotiation process, parties can reach agreement without repeatedly submitting optimal offers near the deadline, thus reducing time waste while maintaining outcome quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback mechanisms that monitor negotiation progress and detect when parties are repeating offers. When repetition is detected, the system provides feedback to encourage parties to explore alternative offers or accept the current outcome, preventing further time waste while ensuring that optimal outcomes are still achieved through structured negotiation guidance.
2Productivity
If the negotiation terminates upon acceptance of an offer, then the negotiation process is efficient and quick, but exploration of potentially better offers is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The system allows for partial termination of the negotiation process by identifying when the outcome space has been sufficiently explored. Rather than requiring exhaustive exploration of all possible offers, the system determines when continuing negotiation would yield diminishing returns, allowing early termination while still achieving high-quality outcomes. This balances efficiency with thoroughness by performing slightly less than complete exploration when adequate results are achieved.
3Loss of information
If AI negotiator queries user about parameter value, then uncertainty of user preferences is reduced, but the query does not ask for preference between options
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of asking users to explicitly rank or choose between options, the system inverts the approach by presenting options and observing which ones users accept or reject. This indirect method of preference elicitation reduces the cognitive burden on users while still gathering valuable preference information, making the interaction easier while maintaining information quality.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for implementing a negotiation includes a non-transitory computer readable medium configured to store instructions thereon. The system further includes a processor connected to the non-transitory computer readable medium. The processor is configured to execute the instructions for preventing a party from repeating an offer during the negotiation unless a predetermined condition is satisfied. The processor is further configured to execute the instructions for requiring the party to continue to repeat the offer until an end of the negotiation in response to satisfaction of the predetermined condition.