Companies Are Using AI To Determine Whether To Charge You More.

 As the saying goes: "I wanted AI to do my laundry and wash my dishes so I can paint and write, not paint and write so I could do laundry and the dishes."

Sadly, that's not what the 1% wants for everyone:

It’s hard not to get fired up by how much more everything costs compared to just a few years ago. But people making the same exact purchases as you aren’t necessarily paying the same exact prices as you.

This became apparent to me a few weeks ago when a friend texted me that Starbucks was running a buy one, get one free drink promotion. But when I logged in to the app, the offer was nowhere to be found.

Why was my friend getting special treatment?

It’s likely that Starbucks used artificial intelligence to determine that my friend, if offered a promotion, would make a purchase they wouldn’t otherwise have, whereas I would make a purchase regardless, said Shikha Jain, a lead partner in the North American consumer and retail division at the consultancy firm Simon-Kucher.

The system nailed it for me — just opening the app to check if I had the promo got me to order, and I paid full price.

It’s impossible to say exactly how Starbucks’ systems made that correct judgment about me — though my past shopping behavior and the shopping behavior of similar customers were almost certainly factors, she said.

The Seattle-based coffee chain declined to share what feeds into its AI model, dubbed Deep Brew. A spokesperson did, however, confirm that AI is powering the individualized offers it sends customers.

This personalized promotion strategy is not unique to Starbucks. Companies are increasingly leveraging customer data, often derived from loyalty programs, in coordination with machine-learning models to customize prices of goods and services based on an individual’s willingness to pay.

The end goal: “Get you to buy more items, buy the same items again or to spend more on the same items,” said Jain.