An Amazon price war taught me a lesson about AI more than a decade before ChatGPT arrived. Today, too many entrepreneurs are making the same costly mistake.
EXPERT OPINION BY KATE HANCOCK
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In 2012, I discovered I was competing against machines. I just didn’t know it yet.
I was running my e-commerce business, the OC Facial Care Center, on Amazon. If you’ve ever sold on Amazon, you know about price wars. When multiple sellers compete for the same customer, price becomes the battlefield. Drop your price a few cents, and you win the sale. Get undercut and you disappear.
I thought I had it figured out. I was fast. Really fast.
I would spot a competitor’s price change and adjust mine in seconds. My staff and I watched our listings constantly. We prided ourselves on our speed. And we were still losing. That’s when the confusion set in. How were my competitors faster than me? I was changing prices in seconds. Nobody could be faster than seconds.
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Then I realized the truth. I wasn’t losing to another seller hunched over a laptop. I was losing to predictive AI.
My competitors were using repricing software powered by algorithms that adjusted prices automatically, instantly, around the clock. While I slept, their systems were winning sales. While I reacted to one price change, their software had already anticipated the next one. I was bringing human speed to a machine race.
That moment forced a decision every entrepreneur eventually faces. I could keep doing it by hand with my staff, working harder and longer, and still falling behind. Or I could use the technology myself.
