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Reasonably reasoning AI agents can avoid game-theoretic failures in zero-shot, provably

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  • Enoch Hyunwook Kang

Abstract

As autonomous AI agents increasingly mediate online platform markets, a fundamental question emerges: do these markets generate stable strategic outcomes? In repeated strategic environments, the Nash equilibrium provides a natural benchmark for this stability. However, empirical evidence on off-the-shelf LLM agents is mixed, leaving it unclear whether independently deployed agents can converge to equilibrium behavior without explicit strategic post-training. In this paper, we provide an affirmative answer. Extending the Bayesian learning literature in theoretical economics, we prove that AI agents, acting as Bayesian posterior samplers rather than expected utility maximizers, are guaranteed to eventually become weakly close to a Nash equilibrium in infinitely repeated games. We further extend this analysis to settings in which stage payoffs are unknown ex ante, and agents observe only their privately realized stochastic payoffs, and obtain the same convergence guarantees. Finally, we empirically evaluate these theoretical implications across five repeated-game environments, ranging from the Prisoner's Dilemma to marketing promotion games. Taken together, our findings suggest that strategic stability in AI-mediated markets can emerge from the intrinsic reasoning and learning properties of modern AI agents, without the need for unrealistic universal fine-tuning.

Suggested Citation

  • Enoch Hyunwook Kang, 2026. "Reasonably reasoning AI agents can avoid game-theoretic failures in zero-shot, provably," Papers 2603.18563, arXiv.org, revised Apr 2026.
  • Handle: RePEc:arx:papers:2603.18563
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    1. Emilio Calvano & Giacomo Calzolari & Vincenzo Denicolò & Sergio Pastorello, 2020. "Artificial Intelligence, Algorithmic Pricing, and Collusion," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 110(10), pages 3267-3297, October.
    2. Fulin Guo, 2023. "GPT in Game Theory Experiments," Papers 2305.05516, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2023.
    3. Stephanie Assad & Robert Clark & Daniel Ershov & Lei Xu, 2024. "Algorithmic Pricing and Competition: Empirical Evidence from the German Retail Gasoline Market," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 132(3), pages 723-771.
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