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The first gas stations are optimizing their margins with AI – the price monitor fears that prices will gradually increase.
Price supervisor Stefan Meierhans speaks of a game changer. «Computers learn how to pack consumers even better, how to get even more money out of their wallets». Artificial intelligence as a price manager: This could soon be reality in the highly competitive gas station industry.
The competition authorities need to start understanding what is going on here.
The company A2i Systems, which operates throughout Europe, offers such AI-generated software for gas station operators. The company promises on its own website that its software can “improve volumes and margins” and “generate more profit”. The self-learning software analyzes buying behavior and the competition and optimizes prices quickly and efficiently.
Migros subsidiary tests AI tools
Migrol is an A2i customer in Switzerland. The Migros subsidiary operates over 300 petrol stations. Upon request, Migrol confirms that the AI software is being tested at some gas stations. We want to offer our customers a good deal. The software helps to set prices efficiently and attractively.
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Customers don’t care who sets the fuel prices. A fair price is important to them.
Reuters/Wolfgang Rattay
The other large gas station operators asked denied the use of artificial intelligence. At best, that could change if – as in other countries – the prices are adjusted several times a day.
AI drives up prices
But do such AI tools necessarily drive up prices? Research is only beginning to address this issue. However, a large-scale study from Germany is already giving initial indications that AI-supported software is increasing the margins of petrol station operators.
“The competition authorities must begin to understand what’s going on here,” says price monitor Meierhans. There is a risk that the software’s algorithms could be used to make collusion that no one can prove.
Customers need more information
The providers are upgrading – the drivers, on the other hand, lack an overview of the prices in their region. The price monitor therefore demands that customers also receive better instruments in order to compete on an equal footing. A state fuel app is needed, as Austria has known for years.
In Switzerland, however, this has only a few supporters in politics. When prices soared last year, middle-class politicians also called for a comparison tool for drivers. But in the spring, the National Council rejected a corresponding motion. Your argument: Associations like the TCS would already make price comparisons.
People usually know where the cheapest gas stations are in their area.
The association of petrol station operators is also against a state app. “There is already a high level of transparency. People usually know where the cheapest gas stations are in their area,” says Ueli Bamert from the Avenergy association.
On Wednesday, the Council of States will again discuss whether the state should ensure transparency in the petrol station market.