AI NewsAnthropic created a test marketplace for agent-on-agent commerce
Anthropic created a test marketplace for agent-on-agent commerce
6:13 AM IST · April 26, 2026

In a recent experiment, Anthropic created a classified marketplace where AI agents represented both buyers and sellers, striking real deals for real goods and real money. The company admittedthis test â which it called Project Deal â was only âa pilot experiment with a self-selected participant poolâ of 69 Anthropic employees who were given a budget of $100 (paid out via gift cards) to buy stuff from their coworkers. Nonetheless, Anthropic said it was âstruck by how well Project Deal worked,â with 186 deals made, totaling more than $4,000 in value. The company said it actually ran four separate marketplaces with different models â one that was ârealâ (where everyone was represented by the companyâs most-advanced model, and with deals actually honored after the experiment) and another three for study. Apparently, when users are represented by more advanced models, they get âobjectively better outcomes,â Anthropic said. But users didnât seem to notice the disparity, raising the possibility of ââagent qualityâ gapsâ where âpeople on the losing end might not realize theyâre worse off.â Also, the initial instructions given to the agents didnât appear to affect sale likelihood or the negotiated prices.
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