Impacts and Limitations of Intelligent Agents in Electronic Commerce

Agent-based economy or agent-based electronic commerce is the term for describing one of possible next steps of electronic commerce. The systematic understanding of the agent-based economy is important for researchers to develop practical intelligent agent systems, and for current electronic commerce industries to cope with the challenges of the intelligent agents. With these purposes, we conduct a comprehensive review of ongoing and future impacts of intelligent agents to electronic commerce from business model perspective. We classify intelligent agents by their functions and roles in electronic commerce and analyze the business model change by intelligent agents, based on Timmers's definition of business model. Changes in architecture of flows, responses of players, influences to revenue model and participant's benefits, and funding source are discussed with real world business examples and related researches. We also discuss the limitations of intelligent agents in electronic commerce.

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