Next time you go online to purchase an airline ticket, there's a chance that the price you see was influenced by artificial intelligence.

Delta Airlines is the first major carrier to begin to use AI technology to set ticket fares.

It's the latest development in an industry that's been experimenting with different ways to adjust ticket prices in real time.

Earlier, I spoke with David Shepardson, who covers transportation for Reuters. David Shepardson covers transportation for

Reuters. David, thank you so much for being here. So how is Delta using this predictive AI,

and what sort of data are they incorporating into these price models?

They're basically viewing AI as a super analyst, right?

So if you back up 30 years ago, the airline started doing this dynamic pricing, right?

So trying to adjust pricing based on fuel costs, demand, seasonal factors, and so on.

And so you're talking about tens of millions of airline prices in real time that they

want to basically absorb enormous amount of data to make those changes, whereas maybe in the old

days an analyst with a pen and pencil and a calculator trying to figure this out. So it's about

trying to move faster in the market versus maybe a little lag. And how individualized does this system allow the airline to get?

In other words, are they in a position where they can start setting different prices person to

person?

So Delta says no.

Delta says flatly.

We do not use any sort of pricing by individuals.

And one of the main arguments they make is you can go to

delta.com. You don't have to log in, put your frequent flyer number in to get the price,

and so you can get the same price, whether you're logged in or not. Now that said, certainly the

ability exists for all sorts of retailers to use, you know, data, you know, the digital

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