Becoming an Agent of Change in the Age of AI
In the world of AI, 2025 is known as the year of agents. Whether you are a startup or a well-established enterprise, every tech company is building agents and adding agentic AI features to their roadmap. Pricing technology companies are no exception.
Pricing in the Era of Agentic AI
Previous generations of AI have evolved from numerical AI that can execute massively complex computations, to LLMs that can generate sophisticated texts, and then to large reasoning models (LRM) that can reason through convoluted logics. Today, AI agents can take actions and complete elaborate tasks to accomplish goals. This evolution marks a profound shift—from AI as a tool that supports or automates decision-making, to AI as a collaborator that drives outcomes. What does this mean for pricing professionals?
The use of AI in pricing is not new. Many existing AI pricing tools can already analyze vast amounts of data in real time, detect patterns imperceptible to humans, and model price elasticity more accurately than most analysts. Today, AI can simulate pricing scenarios across thousands of variables, optimizing for revenue, margin, or conversion at scale. AI can even automate reporting, generate natural-language pricing summaries, and interface directly with sales platforms or customers via chatbots.
It’s never more important for pricing professionals to gain a deep understanding of AI. Beyond knowing how to use AI as a tool, pricers in the age of AI must understand the inner workings of AI systems in order to realize its potential and recognize its limitations. And you will have the opportunity to do just that at the Professional Pricing Society (PPS) Conference this October 21st—24th in Las Vegas, as I will be hosting a workshop and delivering a keynote at the event.
PPS Sessions You Can’t Afford to Miss
The following are the abstracts to both sessions.
Workshop: Pricing R/Evolution in the Age of AI
Abstract:
In today’s uncertain economy, pricing professionals must optimize profits while embracing innovative tools and technologies. This workshop will gently introduce the concept of artificial intelligence (AI) by looking at how it evolved from business intelligence (BI), leading to the development of generative AI (GenAI). We will learn how AI, and particularly GenAI, can augment pricing professionals with analyses (through code generation) and strategy formulation. And we will discuss an important mind shift that’s needed to harness the full potential of AI in pricing. By understanding the limitations of GenAI, we’ll highlight the essential role of traditional analytic AI in grounding GenAI’s capabilities. Finally, we will showcase several cutting-edge analytic AI pricing tools, including neural network-based pricing, win-rate optimization, cost estimation, and explainable AI, culminating in real-time dynamic pricing. Equip yourself with the full spectrum of AI pricing solutions to confidently tackle today’s challenges and complexities. Join us to explore the future of pricing innovation in the age of AI.
Don’t miss my keynote, where we will dive deep to understand AI agents and their impacts.
Keynote: From Dumb LLMs to Intelligent Pricing Agents
Abstract:
We are entering a new era where intelligent AI agents are transforming how businesses operate. These agents go beyond the simplistic large language models (LLMs). They can reason, take actions, and work autonomously to complete complex tasks. This talk will begin by exploring the rise of these intelligent agents—what they are, how they work, and why they matter. Then we’ll examine how agents will change the role of pricing analysts and strategists. As agents handle more routine tasks, pricers will need to focus on what humans do best. What skills and mindset will pricing professionals need to stay relevant and thrive in this new world?
Become an Indispensable Change Agent
As AI will soon become as pervasive as the digital computer, everyone, at every job, in every industry, will require a good understanding of AI to remain relevant. You’ve probably heard that “AI is not going to replace you, but someone using AI will.” So whether you are a pricing analyst or a pricing leader, we all need to adopt AI and use it effectively. But beyond staying relevant, pricing professionals who master the art of agentic AI have the opportunity to become indispensable within their organizations.
Pricing professionals are uniquely suited to be the change agent that ushers their respective organizations into this inevitable future of AI. This is because the very competencies that define their role—cross-functional influence, strategic thinking, data fluency, and ethical stewardship—are exactly what’s needed to integrate AI into an organization in a responsible and value-generating way. Unlike many functions that are either purely technical or purely strategic, pricing sits at the intersection of analytics, strategy, technology, and execution. This unique position gives pricing professionals a bird’s-eye view of the business levers AI will most directly impact. And they already work with dynamic data, understand economic trade-offs, and interface across sales, marketing, finance, and product.
As AI begins to automate routine analysis and even challenge traditional decision-making, pricing professionals who embrace agentic AI can evolve into curators of insight, architects of adaptive strategy, and guardians of fair and profitable automation. Their ability to contextualize AI outputs, communicate impact in human terms, and embed ethical principles into algorithmic pricing decisions makes them not just survivors of this AI wave, but the leaders who shape it.
Conclusion
By understanding how to design, deploy, and collaborate with AI agents, you have the opportunity to not only elevate your role, but the entire pricing industry. Those who can harness agentic AI will not just keep up with change; they will drive it. And there are 2 PPS sessions that will provide you with the very foundation for you to become an indispensable agent of change for the coming age of AI.
I hope to see you there.