The Evolution of Price: From Ancient Value Concepts to Artificial Intelligence

Abstract

Price has experienced a phenomenal change since ancient times. After being firmly established in moral and religious structures, it has become a calculable variable to the benefit of artificial intelligence. To explore the evolution of pricing, this paper will focus on four different stages of pricing evolution, but it will also go beyond that and ask the question of why these shifts occurred and what motivated them. Both phases appeared after new technologies had come into contact with new social structures to generate radically new modes of conceptualizing value and exchange. Price was placed in the cosmic and social order of ancient societies. It was transformed into a mathematical equilibrium by industrial capitalism. It was responsive with the help of digital systems and real-time algorithms. It is currently made predictive and autonomous by AI. We introduce an explanation of how technology influences the pricing mechanisms, demonstrating that AI pricing is not the rapidity of the calculation, but rather a qualitative breakthrough of autonomous market participants. The study exhibits the reflection of pricing systems on the general changes in human thought, technological capability, and institutional organization, and the study has a direct implication on competition policy and market regulation.