Eve Sleep, a British company founded in 2014, has been making waves by using AI technology in its sales. Writer George McGowan recently described his experience buying a mattress from Eve’s website, where an AI chatbot is in charge of sales pitches.
The website has a prominent “Negotiate” button that initiates an AI-driven chat allowing potential buyers to negotiate a lower price.
This website offers to negotiate your mattress purchase with an AI pic.twitter.com/6rhv0jhrfo
— George McGowan (@GjMcGowan) July 15, 2024
The AI behind the innovation was developed by technology company Nibble, which describes itself as a negotiation platform designed to broker “win-win transactions for online retailers and their customers,” according to its website.
McGowan tested various prompts and was successful in negotiating an £80 (about $103) discount, noting that more direct prompts, such as repeatedly asking for a discount, did not produce favorable results.
This is utter insanity, it costs £80 just to talk to the shitty AI, which seems to have had a lobotomy and the obvious prompt hacks don’t work. pic.twitter.com/IHjcowbxuA
— George McGowan (@GjMcGowan) July 15, 2024
Interestingly, other customers have reported similar experiences, raising questions about the overall consistency of the AI, while others say they simply enjoyed trying out the new technology.
I think they are smart enough to not let the AI actually determine the price, it should be set by the user on the backend and they should use llms to make the chat experience more human.
The lowest I could get in a full Indian negotiation was 862. pic.twitter.com/dwQZrLI9lG
— Akshat Giri (@Akshat_Giri) July 16, 2024
It’s fun. I quit after I got the final offer. pic.twitter.com/jyJ2oPwjoY
— Zach Alberico (@zachalberico) July 16, 2024
Now some consumers are wondering if this is just a sales tactic, as they may feel compelled to buy, believing that AI has unlocked a rare and unbeatable deal.
Honestly, it’s pure genius: if you thought sales got people to buy things because they felt like the timing was right, imagine how much more they’ll want to buy when they feel proud of convincing an AI to knock $200 off a $1,000 price.
— VR on the Web (@VROnTheWeb) July 16, 2024
Via GjMcGowan.
