Negotiation is a form of interaction in which two or more parties, with conflicting interests and a desire to cooperate, try to reach a mutually acceptable agreement.
Positive reasons for entering a negotiation is that the negotiation parties see the potential for reaching a win-win outcome, need a deal. A win-win negotiation is a negotiation in which all parties can get a good deal out of the negotiation.
Negotiating is an important aspect of professional and personal life, present in most if not all daily tasks. Sometimes we conduct explicit negotiations; when buying a car or in case of a career interview for example. We resolve most of daily life negotiations without even thinking of them as such, e.g. when going out for drinks or booking a holiday.
Negotiations is a multidisciplinary field of interest. It is actively being researched in artificial intelligence (AI):
AI focuses on the automation of negotiations; using automated agents to negotiate on peoples behalves such as in e-commerce systems. This can improve the outcome and reduce the time needed for negotiations. It can also be used to improve the persons negotiation skills.
Negotiations are also present in many other disciplines, such as economics, game theory, and psychology.
The Future: Collaborative AI
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