Maxime Cohen on Pricing in the Age of AI
Wednesday, October 28, 2026, 6 p.m.
Rotman School of Management, South Building, Desautels Hall, 2nd Floor
This event is offered both virtually and in person. Please register using the link below.
Book Synopsis
How AI is transforming pricing decisions, and what opportunities, challenges, and risks these transformations bring.
Pricing in the Age of AI explores the evolution of pricing decisions, with a particular emphasis on recent advancements. In the age of big data and AI, pricing strategies have undergone a dramatic transformation. For instance, in e-commerce, prices can now be adjusted every few seconds, tailored to individual users or personas, and optimized with precision. This transformation has the potential to disrupt pricing decisions on an unprecedented scale.
Author Maxime Cohen begins by tracing the history and importance of pricing decisions. He focuses on the transformative changes of the past decade, highlighting how big data and AI have upended traditional pricing strategies. He also examines the psychological and behavioural tactics employed to influence consumer behaviour through pricing, as well as how recent advancements in AI—and generative AI—are revolutionizing pricing practices, enabling managers to automate, optimize and personalize decisions at scale. Finally, he discusses the challenges and risks associated with these innovations, including ethical concerns such as anticompetitive practices, consumer protection and discrimination issues.
Speaker Bio:
Maxime Cohen is the Scale AI Chair Professor and the Academic Director of the Bensadoun School of Retail Management at McGill University. He is the Chief of AI Strategy of the CIUSSS West-Central Montreal and the Scientific Director of the non-profit MyOpenCourt.org. He was a Visiting Professor of Operations Management and a Shubik Fellow at Yale School of Management. He is also a Scientific Advisor in AI at IVADO Labs, and is actively advising corporations, retailers and startups on topics related to pricing, retail and data science. He has collaborated with many companies including Google, Microsoft, Meta, Uber, Waze, Amazon, Expedia, Spotify, Couche-Tard/Circle K, Loblaws and Canadian Tire and he serves on the advisory board of several startups. His research and teaching have received 40+ awards, including Poets&Quants Best 40-Under-40 MBA Professors, RETHINK Retail’s Top Retail Influencers, MSOM Young Scholar Prize and Best OM Paper in Management Science.