How to use an AI agent for extracting competitor pricing data efficiently

If you have ever tried to maintain a spreadsheet of competitor prices manually, you know it is a losing battle. Prices change dynamically, layouts shift, and by the time you have finished your audit, the data is often outdated. Even traditional web scraping scripts are fragile; a single change in a website's CSS class can break your entire data pipeline.

This is where using an AI agent for extracting competitor pricing data changes the game. Unlike rigid scripts that look for specific code, an AI agent looks at the page like a human does. It understands context, identifies pricing elements regardless of structural changes, and delivers structured data directly to you.

Here is how you can set up an automated pricing intelligence system using monity.ai.

Why traditional scraping fails at price tracking

Before diving into the solution, it is important to understand why standard tools often fail. Most scrapers rely on "selectors" - specific paths in the HTML code. If a competitor updates their website theme or changes a <div> ID, the scraper returns an error or, worse, incorrect data.

An AI agent operates differently. It uses computer vision and natural language processing to interpret the page. When you ask it to monitor a product price, it does not just look for .price-tag-2; it looks for the visual and textual representation of a price associated with a specific product title.

Setting up your pricing data agent

With monity.ai, you do not need to be a developer to build a robust monitoring system. The platform allows you to configure an AI agent that visits URLs, performs actions, and extracts exactly the data points you need.

1. Define the target URL and mode

Start by entering the product page URL you want to track in monity.ai. You can choose between visual, text, or HTML monitoring modes. For pricing extraction, the text or visual modes are usually most effective as they allow the AI to read the content as a user would see it.

2. Use natural language prompts for extraction

This is the core feature that turns a simple monitor into an intelligent agent. Instead of just getting an alert that "something changed," you can give the AI specific instructions.

For example, you can enter a prompt such as:

"Extract the current sale price and the original price. Alert me if the sale price drops below $50."

The AI analyzes the page content during every check. If the conditions are met, it triggers a notification. This filters out noise - you won't get bothered by minor changes to the footer or menu updates, only the pricing data that matters to your strategy.

3. Handle pop-ups and navigation

Competitor sites are often cluttered with cookie banners, location selectors, or "sign up for 10% off" pop-ups that obscure pricing data. A standard scraper might get stuck here.

With monity.ai, you can configure browser actions before the check occurs. You can instruct the agent to:

• Click "Accept Cookies" buttons.
• Select a specific currency or region from a dropdown.
• Close modal windows.

These pre-check actions ensure the AI is looking at the clean, correct version of the page before it attempts to extract any data.

Delivering the data where you work

Collecting data is only half the battle; you need to act on it. When the AI agent detects a price change or a specific threshold is breached, it needs to notify your team immediately.

monity.ai integrates with the tools you already use. You can receive a summary via Slack or Discord saying, "Competitor X dropped price for Product Y to $99." For more advanced workflows, you can use webhooks to feed this extracted data directly into your own pricing databases or ERP systems, allowing for real-time dynamic pricing adjustments on your own store.

Start automating your market research

Building a custom AI agent for extracting competitor pricing data no longer requires an engineering team. By leveraging smart prompts and browser actions, you can maintain a live view of the market with minimal effort.

You can start building your monitoring tasks today. Try monity.ai for free and stop tracking prices by hand.