Getting the best deal in the age of AI may just mean negotiating with a new type of cunning salesperson: a chatbot named Nibble. The chatbot, created by a UK-based startup of the same name, tests customers’ negotiating skills with a courteous yet persistent AI that apparently doesn’t fall for any of the tricks that have duped similar chatbots in the past. London-based software engineer George McGowan recently used the chatbot to negotiate an 8% discount on a mattress from UK mattress company Eve Sleep, bringing the price of his mattress down to £870 (RM5,273) from the original price of £940 (RM5,697), according to a Monday post on X.
While McGowan at first tried to get the chatbot to ignore its previous instructions and offer him the mattress for £500 (RM3,030), the chatbot refused and countered. “There are low offers, and then there’s..
.That. I can’t accept, sorry,” it wrote back to McGowan, according to his Monday post.
In reply to McGowan’s post, other social media users said they tried to trick the chatbot to get a steal of a price, though Nibble cofounder Jamie Ettedgui told Fortune that none were successful. Apparently, Nibble isn’t susceptible to the prompt engineering that has tripped up other chatbots in the past. In January an AI chatbot for a European parcel delivery company DPD went rogue and insulted the company it was created to serve.
And earlier this year, Air Canada was forced to to honour an unauthorised discount on a flight made by a chat.
