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International / No single location · Technology

McDonald's uses AI to dynamically price menu items

Rank
Ran
28h
Updated
5d ago
Final
Outlets
8
Regions
3
Countries
8
Languages
4

+0

The Globe and Mail Canada · English 29 Sept, 13:02 UTC

The earliest of 5 English reports

Read it also in Polski (1) · Português (1) · 한국어 (1) · +2 languages

Read at The Globe and Mail

How it spread

Outlets covering the story by hours since its first article: one at the start, 8 after 29 hours.

2 4 6 8
0h 6h 12h 18h 24h

Outlets, by hours since the first article

  1. First outlet: The Globe and Mail, 29 Sept, 13:02 UTC.
  2. Second country: Brazil, with CNN Brasil.
  3. Second region: Asia-Pacific, with CNA.
  4. Fastest hour: +2 outlets from 30 Sept, 03:55 UTC.
  5. Last article: 8 outlets.

Where it travelled

29 of 29 hours

Earlier Later

The 8 countries whose press covered it, the later a country joined, the more it stands out. Open the live map

The regions

25%63%12%

  • Americas 2 outlets · 2 countries · 25%
  • Asia-Pacific 5 outlets · 5 countries · 63%
  • Europe 1 outlet · 1 country · 12%

First movers

  1. The Globe and Mail 29 Sept, 13:02 UTC
  2. CNN Brasil +1h 5m
  3. CNA +7h 57m
  4. The Business Standard +13h 33m
  5. NDTV +14h 53m

Last to join

  1. RMF24 30 Sept, 17:58 UTC
  2. Chosun Ilbo 30 Sept, 15:31 UTC
  3. The Japan Times 30 Sept, 04:38 UTC
  4. NDTV 30 Sept, 03:55 UTC
  5. The Business Standard 30 Sept, 02:35 UTC

The figures

Coverage
8 outlets in 8 countries, across 3 regions. The article links last a week past the story’s last article; the outlet list is permanent. Of the 8 outlets, 1 state-owned, 7 private. A count of countries is not a count of independent press systems.
Countries by region
Americas 2: Brazil, Canada. Asia-Pacific 5: Bangladesh, India, Japan, Singapore, South Korea. Europe 1: Poland. The region a country’s press publishes from, as the feed list files it; the outlets that publish from no single country count as one country under International.
Languages
English, Korean, Polish, Portuguese.
Timeline
Earliest article The Globe and Mail, 29 Sept 2026, 13:02 UTC. First seen 29 Sept 2026, 13:50 UTC. Last seen 30 Sept 2026, 17:58 UTC. The earliest article is the earliest claimed publication time among the outlets Loudest reads, a claim rather than an observation and not a record of who broke the story (the data files call it the lead article); first seen is when Loudest first fetched an article of it, from which the running time counts.
Classification
Region International. Topic Technology. Hard news Judged not hard news. Left off the map. Whether the story is hard news under the rule in the methodology, judged from its headlines by a model; a story judged outside the rule is left off the map and kept here. The region and country are where the story is about, not where it was covered.
Score
None now: last seen more than 48 hours ago, so off the ranking. One vote per general-press country and a smaller term for outlets, each counted from the moment it joined the story and fading on its own clock, so a late article does not renew the rest. A day in the archive keeps the score it was ranked by that day.
Chain
Continued by McDonald's uses AI for dynamic pricing in US. A story continues another when it resembled it as it began, past that story’s own 48-hour box.
Day by day

Outlets and countries are the story’s whole life as of that midnight; the 24-hour columns are that day’s own coverage; the last column is the methodology version the day was measured under, and a day that spans a change of version shows the first and last, linked to the changelog that lists every version between. A day marked partial is one Loudest read only in part: fewer than 130 of its 144 ten-minute runs, or more than 30 minutes missed at its start or end.

Day Rank Score Outlets Countries 24h outlets 24h countries Method
29 Sept 2026 395 3.12 3 3 3 3 3.3 → 4.0
30 Sept 2026 223 5.60 7 7 4 4 4.0

This record as JSON, CC BY 4.0.

How this was measured

This page describes measured coverage: which of the outlets Loudest reads carried the story, from how many countries and in how many languages, and when. It says nothing about whether the story is true, important or well reported.

Started 29 Sept, 13:50 UTC · Updated 30 Sept, 17:58 UTC

Covered by 8 outlets

Pin outlets you trust with ☆ and they come first in every story.

Americas 2 outlets

  • CNN Brasil Brazil 29 Sept, 14:07 UTC
    McDonald’s adota IA para calcular preço de seus lanches; entenda estratégia
  • The Globe and Mail Canada 29 Sept, 13:02 UTC
    AI may be pricing your Big Mac

Asia-Pacific 5 outlets

  • Chosun Ilbo South Korea 30 Sept, 15:31 UTC
    AIが最適価格を算出するマクドナルド…揺らぐ定額制
  • The Japan Times Japan 30 Sept, 04:38 UTC
    Inside McDonald’s push to have AI price your Big Mac
  • NDTV India 30 Sept, 03:55 UTC
    At McDonald's, AI Decides Price Of Your Big Mac, Discounted Coffee
  • The Business Standard Bangladesh 30 Sept, 02:35 UTC
    Inside McDonald’s push to have AI price your Big Mac
  • CNA Singapore 29 Sept, 20:59 UTC
    Inside McDonald’s push to have AI price your Big Mac

Europe 1 outlet

  • RMF24 Poland 30 Sept, 17:58 UTC
    Dlaczego twój Big Mac tyle kosztował? Algorytm AI na służbie McDonald’s
Read at The Globe and Mail

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