Facilitating Better Negotiation Solutions using AniMed

Mediation is an important paradigm for dispute resolution. If done properly, it can lead to “win-win” situations and benefit all parties. Thus, the advantage of designing a proficient automated mediator capable of interacting with people during their negotiations is of great importance. Yet, succeeding in this task is difficult due to the diversity of people and their bounded rationality. To be successful, the mediator must take this into account, and propose solutions deemed relevant, or otherwise, lose the focus and trust of the negotiators. In this paper we present AniMed. AniMed is an automated animated mediator, incorporated with a novel proposal generation strategy, aimed to increase the social benefit of the negotiating parties. To validate the benefits of using AniMed in negotiations, experiments were conducted with more than 100 people negotiating with each other. The results demonstrate the significant increase both in the social welfare and the individual utilities of both parties, compared to negotiations in which another state-of-the-art automated mediator or no mediator was involved.