The author highlights the potential of AI agents in negotiating economic transactions and raises questions about their future capabilities, such as handling prepaid debit cards or bartering in non-monetary exchanges. The author also shares the challenges faced in developing Hawke, including achieving tolerable banter and preventing gullible bartering. The article concludes by envisioning a future where AI agents roam the web, making markets beyond the confines of any one platform, potentially reducing the cost of revenue generation.
Key takeaways:
- The author has developed Hawke, an AI chatbot capable of haggling, bartering, making package deals, and transacting actual business without human intervention.
- Hawke uses Stripe's new Agent Toolkit to create a checkout page where customers can buy the product at the negotiated price, and the author will mail the products it sells.
- The two main challenges faced were tolerable banter and gullible bartering, with the initial versions of Hawke being easily talked into steep discounts.
- The author envisions a future where AI agents roam the web, making markets beyond the confines of any one platform, potentially reducing the cost of revenue generation in the same way AI has reduced the cost of content generation today.