Legal Definitions - electronic agent

An electronic agent refers to any automated system or computer program designed to perform actions or respond to messages without requiring direct human intervention or review for each specific task. It operates independently based on its pre-programmed instructions.

• Online Order Confirmation System
  When a customer completes a purchase on an e-commerce website, the site's backend system automatically processes the payment, updates inventory records, and sends an order confirmation email to the customer. This happens instantly without a person manually checking each order or sending each email.

  This illustrates an electronic agent because the website's system independently initiates actions (processing payment, sending email) and responds to the customer's purchase without a human reviewing and approving each individual step.

• Automated Investment Rebalancing Platform
  An investor uses an online platform that is configured to automatically rebalance their portfolio. If one asset class grows to exceed a pre-set percentage of the total portfolio, the platform's algorithm automatically sells a portion of that asset and buys another to maintain the desired allocation, all without the investor needing to manually approve each trade.

  Here, the platform's algorithm acts as an electronic agent because it independently initiates buy or sell orders and executes trades in response to market changes or portfolio imbalances, all based on pre-defined rules and without a human manually approving each transaction.

• Smart Home Climate Control System
  A smart thermostat connected to a home's heating and cooling system monitors the indoor temperature and automatically turns the furnace or air conditioning on or off to maintain a set temperature range. It might also adjust based on occupancy sensors, lowering the temperature when no one is home and raising it before residents return.

  This system functions as an electronic agent because it independently responds to environmental data (temperature, occupancy) and initiates actions (turning heating/cooling on/off) without a human needing to manually adjust it for every temperature fluctuation or change in occupancy.