It's easy to dismiss new technologies as solutions in search of a problem, but if you pause and consider history – some of them completely redefined the game.
Ford didn’t build a faster horse. Nobody asked for ChatGPT… but it’s now changing how we work.
The same goes for AI negotiation agents. No one really asked for it. But - contrary to all the entrepreneurship lessons we learned at London Business School - we built it anyway!
Innovation isn’t just about solving obvious problems. It’s about challenging old assumptions and daring to see familiar challenges — like sourcing, pricing, and sales — in completely new ways.
Lessons learned so far from 1.8 million negotiations in ecommerce
I was talking to a procurement leader yesterday who said, “Everyone expects it to work like Amazon.” And it’s true; here at Nibble we’ve learned a lot from our 100's of ecommerce customers.
They have endless OTHER ways to boost conversion like:
- Personalized product recommendations
- Cart abandonment emails
- Loyalty points
- …and I could easily list 25 more!
But they keep coming back to AI negotiation for campaigns, for emails, for clearance.
Similarly, in B2B, you’ve got volume-based pricing, early payment discounts, fixed bulk offers to key accounts. Some businesses go further, giving special benefits to supplier groups — better terms for sustainable vendors, for example.
But these are still fixed, rule-based, generic tools.
Even dynamic pricing — which is still surprisingly rare in ecommerce — usually hinges on inventory levels or commodity pricing (think petrol stations or airline seats). It nudges demand, but it doesn’t really solve it.
The Old Methods Leave Value on the Table
Here’s what traditional discounting looks like versus what’s possible with real one-to-one negotiation:
On the left: Broad-brush discounts like
- Occasional 10% off new collections
- Promotional 25% off for the email list
- Fire-sale 70% off in the clearance section
It’s predictable and impersonal. You hit the volume, but miss getting to know the customer.
On the right: AI negotiation enables a personalised conversation with each buyer — consumer or supplier — tailoring price, terms, and value in real time to their specific context.
It’s profit-maximising, but that’s not even the most important part. The key lesson we’ve learned over the last 5 years is that you build trust, loyalty, and long-term commercial advantage.
It Feels Personal — Because It Is
The surprising thing about negotiating with AI is that it can feel surprisingly human. This is probably my biggest personal learning from the last 5 years, while many people tell me "I hate chatbots", if it's done well it can be a better experience than a person in a busy call centre.
At Nibble, we’re always clear it’s a bot — not “Susan from accounts.” But that doesn’t stop people from sharing things like:
- “I’m a student on a budget.”
- “I’ve been a supplier for 15 years and need better terms.”
They know it’s AI, but they want the conversation. Like great films, theatre or gaming — nobody thinks it’s real, but the experience still matters.
If you want a deeper dive, here’s a quick video I made explaining how AI negotiation builds better relationships: https://youtu.be/zbMkxD_2ul0?si=HgGS4EaxwfLTJbk3
I’m not claiming AI negotiation is perfect — far from it. There’s a lot to learn about adoption, overcoming internal resistance, and ensuring it really feels human on the other end — available 24/7 when customers want to engage.
It’s a new way to solve an old problem — how to price, sell, and build relationships at scale. It’s not a faster horse. It’s the car.
Here at Nibble we are now starting to build bespoke agents for enterprise customers who need agents to serve suppliers and customers at scale where negotiation is central to a wider conversation, because it is truly personal and builds a relationship. Think about insurance renewals, tail spend in procurement, buying a broadband contract, agreeing commission for real estate deals and agreeing bulk deals for smaller customers in building materials.
Find out more from Nibble's experience negotiating 100,000 times a month here.
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