Some retailers are letting shoppers negotiate lower prices with an AI chatbot

Earlier this year, shoppers who visited makeup brand Iconic London’s website received a surprising message from the site’s chatbot: did they want to pay less for the tube of lip liner they just put in their carts?
Iconic London, whose products are sold in Sephora stores, sent the message to half its shoppers during a weeks-long test to see if they were interested in negotiating for a lower price on the items in their cart. While the bot was secretly authorized to extend average discounts of 15%, most customers who engaged accepted discounts in the single digits. Average order values jumped by 50%.