{"id":31677,"date":"2026-02-12T11:34:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-12T10:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/?p=31677"},"modified":"2026-02-13T08:25:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T07:25:12","slug":"how-ai-is-making-everything-more-expensive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2026\/02\/how-ai-is-making-everything-more-expensive\/","title":{"rendered":"How AI Is Making Everything More Expensive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong><em>B2 &#8211; Upper Intermediate<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Are you familiar with the cost of surveillance? where your personal consumption habits and demographics decide prices. By simply altering the costs of essentials like food, clothing, and services, many companies have been said to employ this pricing strategy to increase their profits in the face of minimal regional competition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To find out more about surveillance pricing and AI price gouging, watch the video below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe title=\"How AI Is Making Everything More Expensive\" width=\"580\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/JlmLdvCM-ZI?wmode=transparent&amp;rel=0&amp;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Vocabulary Questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What is \u201c<strong>estimated conversion probability<\/strong>\u201d?\u00a0<em>\u201cBetween 2000 and 2010, the massive collection of data such as cookies, IP location, and purchase frequency transformed how online retailers tracked consumers. Using this information, they developed models that adjusted prices based on each user\u2019s <strong>estimated conversion probability<\/strong>.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Use this term in a sentence. <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What is\u00a0<strong>\u201csurge pricing\u201d<\/strong>?<em>\u00a0\u201cPowered by algorithms and artificial intelligence, <strong>surge pricing<\/strong> is now being used across a growing number of consumer industries, from theme parks to restaurants, retail outlets, and rock concerts.\u201d<\/em> Use this term in a sentence.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What is \u201c<strong>take rate<\/strong>\u201d? \u201c<em>Research showed that the system significantly increased fares without an equivalent increase in driver earnings. Uber\u2019s <strong>take rate<\/strong> in the United States rose from 32% to 42%<\/em>.\u201d Use this phrase in a sentence.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Discussion Questions:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>What are your thoughts on surveillance pricing? As a consumer, what is your reaction to how many companies practice personalized pricing?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Does this pricing strategy make sense for a large number of customers who are unaware that their purchasing patterns determine the costs of the products they purchase? Share your thoughts.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Share your insights on this, &#8220;<em>Companies defend these models as mechanisms of efficiency and optimization. Critics, on the other hand, argue that they deepen economic inequalities.<\/em>&#8220;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>How can we control this price structure to prevent deception of customers?<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>What benefits and risks does dynamic pricing have for customers?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>B2 &#8211; Upper Intermediate Are you familiar with the cost of surveillance? where your personal consumption habits and demographics decide prices. By simply altering the costs of essentials like food, clothing, and services, many companies have been said to employ this pricing strategy to increase their profits in the face of minimal regional competition. To [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[291,162,8710,301,292,290,14],"class_list":["post-31677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homework","tag-b2-upper-intermediate","tag-business","tag-business-and-business-english","tag-business-english","tag-first-certificate-fce","tag-listening","tag-video"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v16.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>How AI Is Making Everything More Expensive | phone english blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/phoneenglish.es\/blog\/2026\/02\/how-ai-is-making-everything-more-expensive\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"How AI Is Making Everything More Expensive | phone english blog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"B2 &#8211; Upper Intermediate Are you familiar with the cost of surveillance? where your personal consumption habits and demographics decide prices. By simply altering the costs of essentials like food, clothing, and services, many companies have been said to employ this pricing strategy to increase their profits in the face of minimal regional competition. 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