Beat the Bot
In the negotiating ring with an AI? With a mixture of AI, speech recognition and machine learning in a virtual reality environment, the virtual negotiation training "Beat the Bot" was carried out at HNU's Competence Centre for Growth and Sales Strategies. Here, the team explains what makes this practical collaboration so special.
Nominated for the Bavarian-Swabian
Innovation Award Transfer 2024 of the Neu-Ulm University of Applied Sciences
What is "Beat the Bot" about?
The virtual negotiation training was developed as part of the InnoSÜD sub-project "Sales Lab" (2017-2022) at HNU's Competence Centre for Growth and Sales Strategies together with the company partner TriCAT GmbH. The prototype makes it possible to engage in dialogue with a bot at a virtual negotiating table. By combining speech recognition, artificial intelligence and machine learning in a VR environment, natural negotiation situations can be simulated that can be used in sales training regardless of time and location.
The HNU team behind Beat the Bot
The cooperation partner
The team developed the prototype with practice partner TriCAT, an Ulm-based company specialising in virtual 3D learning and working environments.
Fortunately, right at the beginning of our research activities, we became aware of TriCAT from Ulm, which was very well positioned in the field of 3D learning environments at the time. Both TriCAT and we were very keen on this exciting project, the success of which was not yet foreseeable at the time.
Interview with Prof. Dr. Barbara Dannenmann
[1] How would you describe your project in three key words?
Innovative, forward-looking and certainly sweat-inducing :-)
[2] What is special about your project?
We have combined AI and VR in a negotiation training programme for the first time. This allows you to negotiate with fully automated buyers and win or lose a pitch at the end. This innovation is still attracting attention today and we continue to receive enquiries about this project from all over the world. We were able to utilise our research expertise in the areas of negotiation management, AI and B2B sales for this transfer project and transform it into a complex technological solution.
[3] What does transfer mean to you?
Transfer is very important to us as a modern university. Only through effective transfer is it possible to translate theoretical knowledge into practical action. Our university supports us in our research with its many laboratories and unique equipment. When we developed "Beat the Bot", we were even accompanied by a transformer. This was worth its weight in gold for our activities at the interface between research and practice.
[4] What do you take away from the project - professionally, but also personally?
Fully automated negotiation training can complement traditional sales training in the future. We were able to make a scientific contribution to this through publications and specialist articles. Personally, we have grown as a team on this project. The project was extremely complex and multi-layered at the beginning. Developing a functioning prototype at the end was a breakthrough for our research activities, which we are still very proud of today and which is constantly being developed further. We are currently considering the integration of ChatGPT in order to utilise the full potential of GenAI [Generative AI] for all aspects of negotiation training.
The project in videos
