Back in February, quick-service restaurant Wendy’s sparked considerable customer backlash, including threats of boycotts, when it announced plans to test GenAI-powered “dynamic pricing,” initially reported by media as “surge pricing.” Enabled by digital menu boards, the pricing plan would allow Wendy’s to adjust prices based on customer traffic, which many customers took to mean forcing them to pay more at popular meal times.
While Wendy’s certainly faltered from a public china rcs data relations standpoint, it also failed to properly consider the impacts their tech could have on customers’ anxious states of mind at a time of high inflation and widespread suspicions of price gouging. feasible and increase revenues, it could also alienate customers, erode their trust, and cause lasting brand damage.
In contrast, major retailer Walmart demonstrated a relatively savvier use of GenAI. Retail Dive reports that Walmart is equipping its associates with AI tools that bring multiple data sources together to better expose product inventory statuses to shoppers: “Within moments, [associates] can find out if the supplier is out of inventory, if the product is on its way to a store on a truck, or even the approximate time it’ll get moved from the truck to the backroom and then a shelf on the sales floor.” Using its unique internal data to deliver detailed status information via a human employee enhances business transparency and customer service standards, striking a more harmonious balance between technical, business, and user interests.