McDonald’s Is Using AI to Price Big Macs. What Does Purpose Look Like When Algorithms Know What We’ll Pay?

McDonald’s is giving franchisees an AI-powered tool that can recommend menu prices based partly on what customers in a particular market may be willing to pay. The technology raises a bigger question about purpose, trust and how businesses use increasingly powerful insights about their customers.

THE NEWS

Artificial intelligence can predict what you might want to buy. Now, it can help businesses determine how much you might be willing to pay for it.

McDonald’s is expanding the use of an AI-powered pricing tool that analyzes millions of transactions across its U.S. restaurants and recommends prices for individual menu items.

According to Reuters and the New York Post, one of the factors presented by the system is an estimate of “customer willingness to pay” in a particular area. The technology can also consider publicly available competitor pricing and other market information.

McDonald’s says the system makes recommendations rather than automatically changing prices. Franchisees retain control over what they ultimately charge.

The reporting comes as McDonald’s is also emphasizing affordability and value as part of its broader growth strategy.

And that creates an interesting tension.

The same technology that can help a company better understand what customers value can potentially help determine just how much those customers will tolerate paying.

PURPOSE

Businesses have always studied customers.

They conduct market research, analyze sales, watch competitors and adjust prices based on everything from geography to demand.

AI dramatically increases the sophistication of those insights.

So the purpose question isn’t simply whether a company can use AI to understand what customers will pay.

It’s what that knowledge is ultimately for.

Is the purpose to extract the greatest possible value from each transaction?

To deliver greater value to customers?

Or can a business do both?

The technology doesn’t answer that question. The people deciding how to use it do.

VALUES

This story puts several values in view.

Value. Customers want affordability, while businesses and franchise owners need prices that support sustainable operations.

Choice. McDonald’s says individual franchisees ultimately retain authority over menu prices.

Transparency. As increasingly sophisticated algorithms influence decisions consumers experience, how much should people know about how those decisions are made?

Trust. A customer may view a price differently if they believe it reflects costs and market conditions than if they believe an algorithm has calculated the maximum amount they’re likely to tolerate.

None of those values automatically provides an answer.

But they help explain why an AI pricing tool can become about much more than the price of a hamburger.

PRINCIPLES

This is where purpose becomes practical.

Purpose tells an organization why it exists and what it hopes to accomplish.

Principles guide how it pursues that purpose.

An AI system can provide extraordinarily sophisticated information. But it cannot decide the principles that should govern how that information is used.

A principle of mutual benefit, for example, asks whether an exchange creates value for both sides.

A principle of integrity asks whether decisions remain consistent with what an organization says it values.

A principle of long-term focus asks whether maximizing today’s transaction could affect tomorrow’s customer relationship.

Those principles matter precisely because the technology is becoming more capable.

The more an organization knows about us, the more consequential its choices about how to use that knowledge become.

ACTIONS

The McDonald’s story offers a useful glimpse at a much larger question businesses will increasingly face.

AI can help organizations understand customers with extraordinary precision.

That intelligence could be used to optimize prices. It could also be used to improve products, personalize experiences, identify unmet needs, reduce friction or create greater value.

The meaningful distinction may increasingly be found in the HOW.

What principles guide the decisions made with the information AI provides?

And can customers see those principles reflected in their experience?

That may ultimately matter as much for trust as the technology itself.

COMPASS CHECK 🧭

If a company can use AI to determine exactly how much you’re willing to pay, what principles should guide whether, and how, it uses that information?

Check the headlines, then check your compass.

NEWS SOURCES

New York Post, “McDonald’s pushes AI tools that suggest Big Mac prices based on ‘customer willingness to pay,’” September 29, 2026.

Reuters, “Inside McDonald’s push to have AI price your Big Mac,” September 29, 2026.

McDonald’s Corporation, NEXT growth strategy materials, September 2026.