Panel on agent-based electronic commerce: Opportunities and challenges

Recently it has been witnessed that intelligent software agents are used in various e-commerce applications where dynamic and heterogeneous interactions between organizations and individuals are involved. The involvement of agents in e-commerce shows promises of re-shaping the ways business is conducted in areas such as shopping, pricing, negotiation, auction, and brokerages, to name a few. Automation brought by e-commerce agents is expected to reduce certain types of frictional costs and time incurred in trading. However, many theoretical, technological, sociological and legal aspects still need to be addressed before such opportunities become a significant reality.