AI you can use, trust and audit. Live from Accelerate 2026, October 13 to 15
This week, pricing leaders from manufacturing and distribution are gathering in Denver to talk about what AI is really doing for pricing, and what it takes to capture the value. Our team is in every room, sharing the moments, ideas and voices that stand out, as they happen.
The big ideas emerging from Accelerate 2026
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AI in pricing is moving from experimentation to everyday decisions, and leaders now want proof it can be trusted, approved and audited.
- Agents are starting to catch margin risk and recommend action while there is still time to act.
- Speed to value is the new benchmark, with AI helping teams configure and adopt pricing in weeks, not months.
- AI success depends on people and process as much as technology: adoption, governance and shared design.
Big idea of the day
Accelerate opened with attendees engaging with software that is needed. In the hands-on labs, pricing teams built agents that spot margin risk and worked side by side with an AI assistant on everyday pricing decisions.
Session recaps and updates
Hands-On lab: build and use Pricefx Agents that detect margin risk and recommend actions
Session speakers:
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Meredith Campbell, Solution Strategist, Pricefx
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Dr. Jan Wieneke, Industry Advisor, Pricefx
What happened: Attendees built working pricing agents in a sandbox and put them straight to use. They watched an agent flag margin risk, then acted on its recommendations with guidance that kept them in control. Much of the conversation turned on trust: how to validate what an agent produces. The practical answer was to review the first 10 or 20 results and spot-check against a manual calculation, building confidence from there. Attendees also saw they can tailor agents to their own business by adding definitions directly in the agent plan. The session closed on where to start and who benefits. A strong first agent is below-average price, scanning customer segments, quantities, and compliance to surface the “sweetheart deals” that need action. The teams that gain most span commercial, sales, leadership, finance, and procurement.
In 3 months if I'm doing agents well... I'll be spending list time analyzing and more time making decisions... I won't be spending all my time massaging the data
- Attendee
Agent hands-on lab key takeaways
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Less time on data, more time deciding: attendees built agents that take over the data prep that used to eat half a pricing manager’s week.
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Trust comes from checking: reviewing the first 10 to 20 results and spot-checking against a manual calculation is how teams build confidence in what an agent recommends.
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Start where the money leaks: a below-average-price agent scanning segments, quantities, and compliance surfaces the deals worth acting on first.
Hands-On lab: connect an AI assistant and run pricing in plain language
Session speakers:
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Sean Missingham, Principal Product Advisor, Pricefx
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Suzi Rodriguez, Director of Solution Strategy, Pricefx
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Suzanne Valentine, Senior Director of Pricing AI, Pricefx
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Garth Hoff, Senior Director, Product Marketing & Industry Strategy
What happened: Attendees got their own AI assistant connected to live Pricefx and were set loose in a real environment. They built and edited quotes, updated price grids, and walked through approvals. They also generated decks and documents that explained pricing decisions to customers and executives. Optimization drew the most energy. Teams ran models, adjusted inputs, and compared several iterations at once instead of deciding one change at a time. Sean Missingham opened with a primer on working with AI assistants that several attendees called the highlight. The session stayed hands-on and candid, with an open invitation to try to break things, and straight answers to the security and data access questions on everyone’s mind.
The best part was telling them to break it. One person did, a little, and that is exactly how we get better.
- Suzi Rodriguez, Director Solution Strategy, Pricefx
AI assistant hands-on lab key takeaways
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Faster pricing decisions: teams asked questions of live Pricefx data in plain language and got answers in the flow of work.
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Optimization at a glance: running and comparing scenarios side by side replaced hours of one-off decisions with a single fast comparison.
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Trust built by doing: candid, hands-on exploration, including trying to break it, answered the security and data access questions head on.
Pricing Leaders Symposium
Session speakers:
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Ronak Sheth, CEO, Pricefx
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Jennifer Shaw, American Success Leader, Pricefx
What happened: Pricing leaders traded candid views on where AI is working and what it takes to capture the value. The throughline was trust: leaders want recommendations they can explain, approve, and audit before acting on them. A few themes recurred. AI pays off only when systems and data are connected, so decisions can run end to end. Adoption is as much about people and culture as it is about technology. And the work should start from a clear business case, not the technology itself. The discussion got specific on where value leaks and how to prioritize it, with one leader noting that agents are now surfacing more opportunity than teams can act on. Pricing also came up as the natural way into AI for the wider business, alongside a reminder that sales holds the deal context worth bringing in rather than working around.
I can’t believe I’m saying this, but we would be vendor first [rather than build] because we can build what we want because it’s so flexible. I don’t think I would feel that way if it was Vendavo or PROS.
- Anonymized
Pricing symposium key takeaways
- Clear, explainable AI recommendations help pricing teams trust the outcomes.
- Connected systems and data let AI support pricing workflows end to end.
- A clear business case and thoughtful adoption turn AI into measurable value.
Behind the scenes
The moments between the sessions
Author
Pricefx is the AI-powered pricing platform companies around the world trust to price smarter and protect margins. Founded in 2011 and built cloud-native from day one, Pricefx serves customers across manufacturing, distribution, chemicals, and beyond, helping them manage, optimize, and quote prices with speed and precision.
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