Never mind using AI to write stories -- Walmart is finding it helpful for landing a good bargain. The retailer tells Bloomberg that it's using a chatbot from Pactum AI to automatically negotiate some supplier deals. The technology is not only saving an average of three percent on contracts, but preferable to the vendors. Three out of four suppliers prefer haggling with the AI over a human, Walmart says. Pactum's system just asks Walmart to set its budget and requirements, such as discounts and payment terms.

Here's your chance to join a start-up during an exciting early stage as we aspire to dominate the way global businesses make agreements. Pactum is an AI system that automatically performs commercial negotiations on a massive scale. It helps make the best deals between our clients and their vendors, creating value out of thin air. Our clients are Fortune 500 companies and we build things that matter (we already work with the world's largest company, Walmart – read more from Forbes –, as well as Maersk, Wesco, and many more). If you want to be a part of this revolutionary opportunity and work with the largest enterprises in the world, then look no further.

Major retailers have a lot of power over vendors. A chain like Walmart (NYSE:WMT) can, for example, go to a medium-sized vendor and ask it to cut prices by 2% or lose some of its shelf space. That's typical and it helps keeps prices low for consumers. It's also challenging to keep track of for a company operating on the scale Walmart does. To help with that, the retail giant has reached a deal to pilot technology from Pactum to help it negotiate contracts with some of its vendors. Essentially, Walmart is acknowledging that it's tough, if not impossible, to negotiate the best possible terms with its hundreds of thousands of vendors.

An Estonian technology firm, Pactum, has designed an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that is capable of bartering with employees over their contracts. Pactum says that the robot will be able to find the best deal for both parties by factoring in considerations such as holiday allowance, contract terms, and location. The company claims that its AI is'unbiased' and cannot be influenced by gender, ethnicity, age or social class. Negotiating with a robot could be less stressful than dealing with a human, the company suggested. "We've all felt stress during job interviews," said Pactum co-founder Kaspar Korjus.

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. and TALLINN, Estonia, September 16, 2019 -- Launching today, Pactum is an AI-based system that helps global companies to autonomously offer personalized, commercial negotiations on a massive scale. The Mountain View, California company, with engineering and operations in Estonia, has raised an initial $1.15 Million in pre-seed funding to augment negotiation and AI capabilities as well as scale operations. Pactum has also filed the patent this week related to its technology IP. Inefficient contracting has been estimated to cause firms to lose between 17% to 40% of the value on a given deal, depending on circumstances, according to research by KPMG. Pactum's AI helps companies improve their bottom line by implementing bespoke negotiation services for large volumes of incremental partners in every market, that might have previously been unmanaged.

Prominent members of Europe's so-called "Skype Mafia," all co-founders or early employees of the voice-over-Internet conferencing service, are backing Pactum, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to automate business contract negotiations. Founded late last year but only emerged from stealth mode on Wednesday, Pactum uses a chatbot-like interface to conduct contract talks. The bot can offer changes to standard terms, including price, delivery conditions and days to pay, in order to reach a better deal. The company is based in Mountain View, Calif., with engineering offices in Tallinn, Estonia, where Skype's first engineering offices were also located. Among those investing in the small startup are Jaan Tallinn, a Skype co-founder who has become a prominent backer of A.I.-related startups and research groups, Taavet Hinrikus, an early Skype employee who went on to found international payments firm TransferWise, Ott Kaukver, another early Skype employee who is now the chief technology officer at Twilio, and Sten Tamkivi, a general manager at Skype who is now chief product officer at Topia.

What if AI could negotiate commercial contracts better than humans? This is the idea that is being tested by Pactum, a startup that has just raised a $1.15m pre-seed round from an impressive roster of Estonian tech luminaries, including Jaan Tallinn, co-founder of Skype and Kazaa, Taavet Hinrikus, co-founder of TransferWise, Ott Kaukver, chief technical officer of Twilio and Sten Tamkivi, general manager at Skype and chief product officer at Topia. Here is the pitch: Fortune 500 companies have collectively some 12m supplier contracts that are unmanaged. They may be too small or numerous for them to be looked at in detail by a human negotiator, so everyone is given a standard contract, take it or leave it. "It is too complicated for humans, if you are marketplace with 3m partners, for example, you can't tailor contracts," says Kaspar Korjus, co-founder and chief product officer at Pactum.

The AI Negotiation system is backed by founders of Skype and TransferWise and built by luminaries from Skype, Starship Technologies and the Government of Estonia's e-Residency program Launching today, Pactum is an AI-based system that helps global companies to autonomously offer personalized, commercial negotiations on a massive scale. The Mountain View, California company, with engineering and operations in Estonia, has raised an initial $1.15 Million in pre-seed funding to augment negotiation and AI capabilities as well as scale operations. Pactum has also filed the patent this week related to its technology IP. Inefficient contracting has been estimated to cause firms to lose between 17% to 40% of the value on a given deal, depending on circumstances, according to research by KPMG. Pactum's AI helps companies improve their bottom line by implementing bespoke negotiation services for large volumes of incremental partners in every market, that might have previously been unmanaged.