UCL School of Management is delighted to welcome Professor Maxime Cohen, McGill University, to host a research seminar discussing; Generative AI for Pricing.

Abstract:

How recent advances in GenAI can be leveraged to transform pricing decisions? By lowering technical and financial barriers, these tools democratize access to sophisticated pricing capabilities. We begin by discussing how GenAI serves as a game changer, particularly by leveling the playing field for smaller firms. Next, we highlight the fundamental differences between traditional algorithmic pricing and GenAI-driven approaches. A central argument is that prompting is everything (at least for now): effective pricing recommendations depend heavily on how prompts are crafted.

We then present three in-depth case studies: pricing a house, a used car, and hourly contracting work, each supported by rich datasets and extensive analyses. We then explore whether the machine learning operations (MLOps) pipeline for data-driven price optimization can be streamlined using a structured, step-by-step prompting strategy. Finally, we discuss a critical regulatory question: what are the implications for market competition if firms increasingly rely on LLMs to set prices?