One week after McDonald’s held its investor day at its Chicago headquarters, Wall Street has soured on a near-term turnaround effort, with Deutsche Bank analysts saying it has effectively been delayed.  Now, a new report says the quick-service restaurant chain behind the Big Mac is rapidly expanding its use of artificial intelligence to recommend menu prices based partly on what customers in each restaurant’s area are willing to pay. Reuters details exactly how and what AI expansion at the QSR means for customers: The details of how that pricing system works, its extensive use of AI, the company’s regulatory concerns and the tensions with its franchisees haven’t been previously reported. For this story, Reuters reviewed screenshots of the company pricing engine taken in August and interviewed nine sources with first-hand knowledge of the burger chain’s strategy. McDonald’s pricing engine uses machine-learning algorithms to continually analyze data from millions of daily transactions across McDonald’s nearly 14,000 restaurants and generate what the company calls “the optimal price” at each location for each menu item, from Big Macs ‌to discounted coffee …