MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy

Thank you Dylan Walsh for writing this clear and concise article summarizing our paper on the MIT AI Negotiation Competition and the surprising power of warmth in AI negotiation. We’re delighted to report that the paper was just published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science. Many thanks to my terrific coauthors, Michelle Vaccaro, Michael Caosun, Harang Ju, and Sinan Aral. For research assistance, we thank Almog Hillel and Laker Newhouse. We thank the extraordinary Robert Axelrod for providing invaluable advice on the design of our competition. We thank iDecisionGames and Niraj Kumar for providing the technical platform, OpenAI and Mamie Rheingold for model access, and the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy (IDE), MIT Sloan Executive Education, Peter Hirst, MBE, Office of Teaching and Learning, Dylan Girard and The Program on Negotiation at Harvard Law School for their institutional support. We also thank Alain Lempereur for pilot-testing our AI negotiation competition in his course. Finally, we extend our gratitude to all participants in the MIT Negotiation Competition for their engagement and creativity. Their innovative approaches significantly contributed to our understanding of AI negotiation dynamics. Kudos to some of the top-performers: Taivo Pungas Nishika Makwana Ionatan Ben Shalom Allison Brown Sebastian Schäfer Miles Silva Kaveh Falamaki Emmanuel Garcia Brhea D'Mello Réda Guiri Marwan Ruby, M.S. #Negotiation #AI

Beach read? Business book? Sci-fi classic? Something that changes how you think? We asked the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy team what they're reading this summer, and the answers are exactly as eclectic as you'd expect. From the mathematics behind modern AI to the history of tequila, from Paul Farmer's quest to cure the world to a revolutionary colony on the Moon, our 2026 Summer Reading List has something for every kind of reader. We'll be spotlighting one recommendation each week throughout the summer, but you can browse the full list now: https://lnkd.in/ePb4V-8c 📚 What's on your summer reading list?

MIT Sloan's Analytics Lab (MIT A-Lab), an MIT Sloan Action Learning course presented by the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, is now accepting project proposals for Fall 2026. Each year, A-Lab brings together organizations with real business challenges and MIT student teams skilled in analytics, machine learning, economics, and computer science. Together, they work to transform data into actionable insights. Since its launch, A-Lab has engaged nearly 1,000 students on more than 200 projects spanning everything from e-commerce and finance to healthcare, manufacturing, workplace safety, and global health. If your organization has a data-rich problem that's ready for analysis, we'd love to hear from you. 📄 Details and proposal information are included in the call for proposals document below 📝 Ready to submit? Do so via the host application portal: https://lnkd.in/eGjmMyhw 🧑💻Interested MIT Sloan School of Management students can apply via the Student Application Portal: https://lnkd.in/eWrJkiFX Questions? Reach out to IDE Associate Director, Albert Scerbo. Sinan Aral, Abdullah Almaatouq

🚨New Published Paper🚨 Research scientists at MIT Sloan School of Management and the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy have a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). 🤖 Advancing AI Negotiations: A Large-Scale Autonomous Negotiation Competition — by Michelle Vaccaro, Michael Caosun, Harang Ju, Sinan Aral, and Jared Curhan — explores what happens when AI agents negotiate with each other at scale. With agentic AI deployment advancing rapidly, these findings have real implications for how companies design and deploy autonomous AI systems. Swipe through for the highlights ⏭️ Paper linked in comments 🔗

Quantum computing is no longer a distant possibility. Today, roughly 40 quantum processing units are commercially available around the world. But the technology's defining milestone still lies ahead: achieving "quantum advantage," the point at which a quantum computer can outperform classical systems on a commercially meaningful task. In a new chapter published in Priority Technologies: Ensuring US Security and Shared Prosperity (The MIT Press), Jonathan Ruane, Research Scientist at The MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, and Will Oliver, Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and Director of the MIT Center for Quantum Engineering, examine where quantum computing stands today, how the global race is evolving, and what the U.S. must do to remain competitive. Read more: https://lnkd.in/gP5f9Y8A

Would you trust an AI agent to buy groceries for you? What about a TV? Or a new car? AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude are great for helping people search products, narrow choices and find the best price. But what if it could make the purchase for you, too? Would you give it your credit card to with as it will? This is for sure coming. McKinsey is predicting $1 trillion in revenue from AI agent online shopping by 2030 - a new market that's too good for online retailers to pass up. But agentic commerce - using AI agents to select, purchase, and fulfill products from online retailers - must get over barriers, like trust, infrastructure and security. For the past two months, I've been looking into this topic, trying to suss out where agentic commerce stands today, who the emerging big players are, and what needs to happen before we see widespread adoption. I wanted to know how the technology works, what needs to happen before this becomes a big thing, what regulations are in place to safeguard our personal data, and what the big players in online retail, banking, credit cards and cloud infrastructure are doing to position themselves as leaders. My piece on the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy blog, linked in the comments, covers all that. Check it out if your curious. Thanks to Bob Hedges, an IDE Digital Fellow and  former Chief Data Officer at Visa, and Benjamin Manning and Peyman Shahidi at MIT Sloan School of Management for helping me understand the market forces at play.

Congratulations to our fearless leader, MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy Executive Director, David Verrill on receiving MIT’s Gordon Y. Billard Award 🎉 Presented as part of the MIT Excellence Awards, the Billard Award recognizes distinguished service to the Institute. This year, David was one of three recipients honored. Anyone who has worked with David knows his impact extends far beyond a job title. Through decades of service to MIT and his leadership of the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, he has built connections, opened doors, and helped create opportunities for countless members of the MIT community. We’re thrilled to see that contribution recognized. Please join us in congratulating David on this well-deserved honor!

From AI agents and workplace skills to quantum computing and the future of commerce, there's a lot happening across the MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy right now. Our latest newsletter brings together new research, interviews, books, media coverage, and upcoming events from IDE faculty, fellows, and researchers exploring how technology is reshaping business and society. Inside you'll find: • How sustained AI use may boost productivity while eroding expertise over time, from IDE Director Sinan Aral and MIT Sloan PhD student Michael Caosun • Why organizations should think carefully before treating AI agents like employees, from IDE Digital Fellow Emma Wiles • What agent-powered commerce could mean for the future of markets, from MIT Sloan PhD candidates Benjamin Manning and Peyman Shahidi • Where the quantum computing race stands today, from IDE Research Scientist Jonathan Ruane and MIT Professor William D. Oliver Plus new articles, media coverage, books, and upcoming events from IDE faculty, fellows, and researchers exploring how digital technologies are reshaping business and society. Take a look at what's new from MIT IDE.

Some companies are already giving AI agents names, email addresses, and even spots on the org chart. But what happens when people start treating AI like a coworker instead of a tool? New research led by Emma Wiles, Assistant Professor at Questrom School of Business, Boston University and Digital Fellow at MIT Initiative on the Digital Economy, found that framing AI as an employee can influence how managers review work, assign responsibility, and think about oversight. The study raises a practical question for organizations adopting AI: not just what these systems can do, but how we choose to integrate them into the workplace. Read more: https://lnkd.in/eEPcPYYU