1. An automated shopping system in which a user places an order for at least one provider, a degree of matching between each order-provider pairing is computed, and a score is reported to at least the user and optionally to the at least one provider, the automated shopping system comprising: at least one processor to receive and process information including at least one of (a) user information from at least one user including information that specifies provider criteria and order information that specifies order criteria for that particular order, (b) provider information from at least one provider, and (c) third party information; at least one data storage device that communicates with the at least one processor, that includes at least one database, and that receives and stores the information in the at least one database; at least one virtual provider that is created by program code within the at least one processor by pairing provider information of a particular provider with order information of a particular order to create an informational pair and that is stored within the at least one database; a knowledge base that is stored in a data storage device which may be said at least one data storage device, and that contains information on which to base requests for information by the system; a scoring system that resides in program code within the at least one processor, that compares the provider information of a particular provider and the order information of a particular order within each respective informational pair in at least one step, and that determines a score reflecting a degree of matching for each respective informational pair; and a management system that resides in program code within the at least one processor, that tracks each virtual provider through multiple steps, and that sequences the multiple steps by specifying contents of each step of the multiple steps, the contents at least including instructions to at least one of (a) the user regarding the input of user information, (b) the provider regarding the input of provider information, and (c) third parties regarding the input of information.