Guest Blog: Becoming an Agent of Change in the Age of AI
- PPS
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
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.
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.
About the Author
Dr. Michael Wu is one of the world’s premier authorities on artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), data science, and behavioral economics. He’s the Chief AI Strategist at PROS (NYSE: PRO), an AI-powered SaaS provider that helps companies monetize more efficiently in the digital economy. He’s been appointed as a Senior Research Fellow at the Ecole des Ponts Business School for his work in Data Science. Prior to PROS, Michael was the Chief Scientist at Lithium for a decade, where he focuses on developing predictive and prescriptive algorithms to extract insights from social media big data. His research spans many areas, including customer experience, CRM, online influence, gamification, digital transformation, AI, etc. His R&D won him the recognition as an Influential Leader by CRM Magazine along with Mark Zuckerberg, Marc Benioff and other industry giants. Michael has served as a DOE fellow at the Los Alamos National Lab conducting research in face recognition and was awarded 4 years of full fellowship under the Computational Science Graduate Fellowship. Prior to industry, Michael received his triple major undergraduate degree in Applied Math, Physics, and Molecular & Cell Biology; and his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley’s Biophysics program, where he uses machine learning to model visual processing within the human brain. Michael believes in knowledge dissemination, and speaks internationally at universities, conferences, and enterprises. His insights have inspired many global enterprises and are made accessible through “The Science of Social,” and “The Science of Social 2”—two easy-reading e-books.
