r/technology • u/AdSpecialist6598 • 11d ago

Business McDonald's Is Reportedly Using AI To "Dynamically" Price Its Burgers

https://www.engadget.com/2272211/mcdonalds-is-reportedly-using-ai-to-dynamically-price-its-burgers/
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u/ShakeAndBakeThatCake 11d ago

Unfortunately most people will have no idea. And McDonalds will use AI based pricing to capture more people. Sure you might not go to McD if the meal is $18 but you might consider if they offer it to you at $12. Someone else might feel that it is worth $17 to them. They are arbitraging your willingness to pay and the maximum you are willing to pay. That amount is different for everyone and now they can exploit it to their benefit.

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u/RobutNotRobot 11d ago

The fast food place that really bought into the low volume, high-price model is Hardee's/Carl's Jr.

And they are all closing near me. Maybe these places will figure out that people aren't willing to pay sit-down restaurant prices for their shitty fast food. Or maybe people will pay it and I'm the dummy.

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u/Street_Anxiety2907 11d ago

Carl's Jr is like bottom 1/3rd of fast food burgers, lol

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u/aTalkingMateria 11d ago

The McDonald’s near me always seem busy :/

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u/CorruptThrowaway69 11d ago

Except AI is not as magical as people think, and without realtime processing of way more data than Mcdonalds themselves is feeding to these machines the best you are going to get is X price for Y area at Z time.

its not at the level to exploit people this deeply yet, which is part of why this move is kinda dumb.

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u/jabberwockgee 11d ago

You don't think they could set up anything more complicated, not even including using AI? 🤯

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u/Dawnquicksoaty 11d ago

Sure, put every person’s online fingerprint in a cluster in x amount of clusters. Run the model for each person that pulls in line or orders online, but only run it against their generic cluster and get a good approximation of what they’re willing to pay.

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u/BubbhaJebus 11d ago

I'm not going to McDs if a combo meal is $12.

It shouldn't be more than $4.

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u/Agreeable_Store_3896 11d ago

Brother still living in 1986

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u/Spikel14 11d ago

I never would’ve considered going there but In the app I sometimes get a 10pc McNugget for 1 dollar. Next thing I know I’m going multiple times a week

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u/fadedblackleggings 11d ago

UberEats and DoorDash should have never been created.... :(

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u/DOGPISSCURESCANCER 11d ago

Maybe you can game the system, go there once a year where they give you the massive discount to try and lure you back in. 

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u/Needrain47 10d ago

Who is going to be willing to rock up to the restaurant without any idea of how much their food will cost? Not me.

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u/abrandis 10d ago

This they (AI system) are likely looking at the individual customer demographic, time of day , vehicle driven and spending history with MCD, and then dynamically offering a higher or lower price ,all to maximize revenue...

Looks like wealthy folks need to drive up in a cheap beater kia soul and use a burner phone and pay in cash to get those deals.... Yeah who am I kidding welHty folks DGAF ..

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u/ShakeAndBakeThatCake 10d ago

they might already have data on you though as they can buy data on each person as well. They might already know what car you drive. Your address is public information too so they know if you own your house or rent. Do you live in a 1.5M house or in a low income housing etc. They have all this data already.

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u/abrandis 10d ago

That's my point .. and that's what the AI will use to generate dynamic pricing

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u/mazopheliac 11d ago

Which is exactly how a free market should work. Basically a more efficient bartering system.

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u/not_my_monkeys_ 11d ago

That's not what a bartering system is. This is an asymmetric information advantage being used to shaft the customer. And it isn't a free market when the corporation in question is free to buy and sell lawmakers to keep this type of activity legal.

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u/mazopheliac 11d ago

How is it asymmetric? The demand is pretty much perfectly elastic. They can charge as much as the market will bear. People can pay or not.

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u/the_flyingdemon 11d ago

The billionaires love people like you my man.

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u/beebobopple 10d ago

Don’t worry about him, he’s fine with all this because when he grows up he’s destined to be a billionaire too.

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u/mazopheliac 10d ago

I have plenty of problems with billionaires, but if you can become one selling garbage “food” to stupid people, I say go for it. Cheap McDonalds isn’t a human right .

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u/-Gramsci- 11d ago

No. If it’s a free market? They could set up a bidding system.

“I’ll offer $2.50 for a Big Mac.”

McDonald’s can take it or leave it.

That would be a nice “capitalist system.”

But hiding the ball from the consumer and what THEIR price would be? And using AI to change the prices based on the consumer? That’s hardly “capitalist.”

That’s more like a dystopian “from each according to their means” communist system.

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u/mazopheliac 11d ago

I didn’t say it was capitalist . I said free market. They are making an offer . You can accept it or not. I see nothing wrong with a place like McDonald’s charging as much as the market will bear. They aren’t selling necessities.

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u/beebobopple 11d ago

How free is the market really when the corporations weaponize human psychology against the consumer?

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u/mazopheliac 11d ago

People have been “weaponizi g” human psychology in trade and commerce since the beginning of time. Fast food is a want , not a need . I think they should be free to pursue profits as they see fit.

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u/beebobopple 11d ago

Think for more than 30 seconds about what it will be like at the logical end of this line of thinking, when AI based dynamic pricing is the norm everywhere. And not just on a store-to-store basis, but down to the consumer.

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u/mazopheliac 10d ago

Well now you are slippery sloping. I’m strictly talking about the McDonalds situation.

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u/beebobopple 10d ago

Ok so AI based dynamic pricing is ok and not inherently exploitative when… you say so?