Agent-mediated electronic commerce: a survey

Software agents help automate a variety of tasks including those involved in buying and selling products over the Internet. This paper surveys several of these agent-mediated electronic commerce systems by describing their roles in the context of a Consumer Buying Behavior (CBB) model. The CBB model we present augments traditional marketing models with concepts from Software Agents research to accommodate electronic markets. We then discuss the variety of Artificial Intelligence techniques that support agent mediation and conclude with future directions of agent-mediated electronic commerce research.