Surge pricing is something that anyone who takes a ride share on a regular basis has become used to. Try calling an Uber or Lyft on a rainy day during the dinner hour or around the school pick-up or drop-off time and you’ll be paying more than your usual rate — sometimes a lot more. Yet when consumers are confronted with common online business models like “dynamic pricing” in the bricks-and-mortar world, they may revolt. Consider the recent consumer backlash after Wendy’s, the American fast-food chain, announced on an earnings call that they were considering surge pricing for burgers during peak demand — and had invested $20mn in new AI systems to do so.
任何经常叫网约车的人都已经习惯了峰时定价。试一下在下雨天的晚餐时间或学校接送时间叫一辆优步(Uber)或Lyft的车，你会付比平时更多的钱，有时甚至是多很多。然而，当消费者在实体世界中面对“动态定价”这样的常见线上商业模式时，他们可能会反抗。想想最近美国快餐连锁店Wendy's招致的消费者的强烈反对吧，起因是该公司在一次财报电话会议上宣布，他们正在考虑在需求高峰期间对汉堡进行峰时定价，并为此投资了2000万美元研发新的人工智能系统。