I bet their version of dynamic pricing is less “the price of a burger changes from 2pm to 6pm based on demand” and more “we let the AI slowly adjust prices across different regions over days and weeks to learn the point that extracts the maximum profit in each market”.
Oh absolutely, but modern machine learning algorithms will be far more effective and biased. You might think it would lower prices in poorer neighborhoods, but instead it might discover they are a captive market with no nearby grocery stores and poor transit to get to a “cheaper” Wendy’s, and instead raise prices to squeeze people who have few alternatives and are already struggling. Welcome to the enshitification of fast food.
I bet their version of dynamic pricing is less “the price of a burger changes from 2pm to 6pm based on demand” and more “we let the AI slowly adjust prices across different regions over days and weeks to learn the point that extracts the maximum profit in each market”.
I don’t see that as a problem. That’s already being done. Fast food prices are already different if you buy it in the city vs in a small town.
I think it’s the buzzword overload.
Oh absolutely, but modern machine learning algorithms will be far more effective and biased. You might think it would lower prices in poorer neighborhoods, but instead it might discover they are a captive market with no nearby grocery stores and poor transit to get to a “cheaper” Wendy’s, and instead raise prices to squeeze people who have few alternatives and are already struggling. Welcome to the enshitification of fast food.
I think the problem here is trying to squeeze the absolute maximum possible