According to three Democratic senators, there are concerns raised about the use of artificial intelligence to determine airline prices.
Duffy promised to look into any airlines that use the technology to set prices on Tuesday.
I can assure you that we will investigate if someone approaches Duffy about trying to individualize pricing on seats based on their income, whether they make money from the table, whether they don’t, or who they are.
If a company attempts to use AI to price their seats individually, “we would strongly engage.”
Duffy noted that Delta had stated that it would not use artificial intelligence to determine the price of individual tickets and that it would treat them as such.
Delta Air Lines admitted last week that it would not and has not used artificial intelligence to fix prices for individual customers.
Democratic Senators Ruben Gallego, Mark Warner, and Richard Blumenthal expressed their belief that the Atlanta-based airline would “likely” use AI to set individual prices, which would “likely lead to fare price increases that are tailored to each individual consumer’s personal “pain point.”
By the end of 2025, Delta and Fetcherr, an AI pricing company, have agreed to use AI-based revenue management technology to power 20 percent of its domestic network.
On its website, Fetcherr lists Viva, WestJet, Virgin Atlantic, Viva, and Azul among the “world’s leading airlines” that the company claims its technology is “trusted by the world’s leading airlines.”
Robert Isom, the CEO of American Airlines, claimed last month that using artificial intelligence to determine ticket prices could harm consumer trust.
Legislation introduced by Democratic lawmakers Greg Casar and Rashida Tlaib would specifically prohibit airlines from raising individual prices after seeing a search for a family obituary.
