Marcus Zillman of Botspot, an agency that tracks software agents, predicts that in five years, bots will be involved in most online shopping. Like a real estate agent or travel agent, a software shopping agent has responsibility for finding products and prices, Professor Maes said. One of the agent's responsibilities is to match the user's preferences.
Software agents take initiative, learn from the habits of their clients and adapt to the market.
At the M.I.T. Media Laboratory, Professor Maes founded and directs the Software Agents Group and holds the Sony Corporation Career Development Chair. Two of her many projects have led to commercial spinoffs that represent the two leading types of shopping bots. The first was Firefly, introduced in 1995, which helps make individual recommendations for taste-based products like compact disks, books and films. The other is Frictionless, which went into service in August on the Lycos portal and other Web sites. Frictionless is designed to shop for the best price and service on less-frequently bought products, like cars or camcorders.