Pricing Leadership Outlook 01: Maarten Oosten
Author: Maarten Oosten
Over the next five years, the companies that win at pricing will not necessarily be those with the most advanced technology. They will be those that can consistently translate strategic business objectives into transparent, effective, and measurable pricing tactics.
Generative AI will transform how users interact with pricing systems and data, but the fundamental differentiator remains the quality of the pricing decision itself. Transparency is critical because pricing decisions ultimately carry business and ethical accountability. Organizations need to understand why a recommendation was made, what factors influenced it, and retain meaningful human oversight.
At the same time, pricing must be actionable. Users need to be able to pro-actively adjust pricing tactics as business objectives change and measure the resulting impact against those objectives.
This ultimately requires more than technology. Winning companies will combine advanced analytics and AI with disciplined pricing practices: clearly defined objectives, well-structured pricing policies, deliberate planning of pricing actions, and rigorous measurement of their outcomes.
About the Author
Maarten Oosten, Executive Director and Global Head of Data Science at Vistex, has over 25 years of experience designing and implementing pricing solutions across industries. He holds a Ph.D. in Mathematics and an M.S. in Econometrics. Previously, he held roles at Carnegie Mellon, UBC, PROS, and SAS. An active member of INFORMS and PPS, Maarten has spent the past nine years building Vistex’s data science practice and advancing price optimization tools within its solution suite.
