How Delta Air Lines Uses A.I. Yet Avoids ‘Hallucinations On Steroids’

Many people chatter about A.I. but now an actual functioning airline has started to use the technology

Speaking Wednesday at an investor conference, Delta
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Air Lines executives said the carrier has started to use artificial intelligence in two ways: to quickly make procedures known to reservations agents and also to assist in pricing. The pricing utilization has just been implemented in the past month.

“I think the initial foray into A.I. is on the customer service side,” said CEO Ed Bastian, responding to Morgan Stanley
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analyst Ravi Shankar’s question about the carrier’s use of the technology. “We’re working with our reservations team to try to help our reservations agents parse the historical policies and questions and things that you may you may call into a real agent.”

For instance, Bastian said, if a passenger calls with a question about traveling with a pet, the agent can quickly access an answer from a procedural manual. “People go on and are on hold for five minutes waiting for an answer; they should only be on hold for five seconds,” he said. “That’s what A.I. can do, and that’s one of the first applications that we’re deploying.”

Long term, Bastian noted, Delta holds more than $40 billion in assets, and would benefit “if A.I. can increase the value of that by 2%” by using the technology to solve complex issues that involve large quantities of data. But first, he said, “It’s really important that large companies such as Delta ensure that when you deploy A.I. you have your house in order that you have these policy questions streamlined, you have your data clean you have you have your networks built.”

Without clean data, Bastian said, “you let the computers control the information flow with a dirty structure” and then for output “You’re talking about hallucinations. You’re going to get hallucinations on steroids.” To avoid them, he said, “We’re being very disciplined about how we roll it out. But I think the opportunity is enormous.”

Additionally, Delta President Glen Hauenstein said the carrier began experimenting with A.I. for pricing in the past month. The technology can help to determine “the amount people are willing to pay for the premium products related to the base fares.” Hauenstein said Delta pricing analysts can look at what the technology recommends that the carrier should be charging. “It takes a lot of time and a lot of effort out of the feedback loops, and it really automates, it streamlines and accelerates our ability to move faster,” he said.