达美航空正积极推进由人工智能驱动的动态票价策略，旨在根据个体支付意愿为每位乘客设定最优机票价格。公司计划在2025年底前，让AI参与设定20%的机票价格，并已在部分航线上进行了测试，结果显示“非常有利”。这种新的定价模式将取代传统的固定票价，实现实时、个性化的价格调整。达美航空总裁表示，这是对其定价策略的全面重塑，虽然初期营收表现令人鼓舞，但也承认若控制不当可能存在风险。此举引发了对消费者隐私和潜在的“掠夺性定价”的担忧。

✈️ **AI驱动的个性化定价策略：** 达美航空正在全面推广使用人工智能来为每位乘客设定机票价格，目标是到2025年底，AI将影响20%的机票定价。这种策略旨在根据个体乘客的支付意愿，实时调整特定航班和时间的票价，以实现“为你，为个体”的精准定价。

📈 **“极其有利”的测试结果与推广计划：** 达美航空在去年的小范围测试中看到了“极其有利”的效果，目前AI已影响3%的机票价格，并计划逐步扩大其应用范围。公司将其视为对现有定价和未来定价方式的“全面重新设计”，这是一个多阶段、多年的过程。

🤝 **与Fetcherr的合作及AI“超级分析师”角色：** 达美航空的AI定价技术由旅行公司Fetcherr提供支持，该公司也与多家其他航空公司合作。在达美航空的案例中，AI将扮演一个全天候运作的“超级分析师”，为个体客户实时确定应提供的定制化机票价格。

⚖️ **定价的复杂性与潜在风险：** 航空业多年来一直存在差异化定价，受预订时间、预订渠道甚至浏览器类型等多种因素影响。AI定价将进一步“超级化”这一做法。尽管达美航空在定价策略上表现坦诚，但也承认如果控制不当，个性化AI定价“可能非常危险”。

⚠️ **隐私担忧与消费者批评：** 达美航空的AI定价策略引发了隐私倡导者的担忧，他们认为这是试图“看透人们的想法”，甚至“破解我们的大脑”。也有批评者将其描述为“掠夺性定价”，旨在“榨干每一分钱”。此前，达美航空曾因对散客收取比团体更高的票价而受到批评，并已对此进行了调整。

Delta Air Lines is leaning into dynamic ticket pricing that uses artificial intelligence to individually determine the highest fee you’d willingly pay for flights, according to comments Fortune spotted in the company’s latest earnings call. Following a limited test of the technology last year, Delta is planning to shift away from static ticket prices entirely after seeing “amazingly favorable” results.

“We will have a price that’s available on that flight, on that time, to you, the individual,” Delta president Glen Hauenstein told investors in November, having started to test the technology on one percent of its ticket prices. Delta currently uses AI to influence three percent of its ticket prices, according to last week’s earnings call, and is aiming to increase that to 20 percent by the end of this year. “We’re in a heavy testing phase,” said Hauenstein. “We like what we see. We like it a lot, and we’re continuing to roll it out.”

While personalized pricing isn’t unique to Delta, the airline has been particularly candid about embracing it. During that November call, Hauenstein said the AI ticketing system is “a full reengineering of how we price and how we will be pricing in the future,” and described the rollout as “a multiyear, multi-step process.” Hauenstein acknowledged that Delta was excited about the initial revenue results it saw in testing, but noted the shift to AI-determined pricing could “be very dangerous, if it’s not controlled and it’s not done correctly.”

Delta’s personalized AI pricing tech is provided by travel firm Fetcherr, which also partners with Virgin Atlantic, Azul, WestJet, and VivaAerobus. In Delta’s case, the AI will act as a “super analyst” that operates 24/7 to determine custom ticket prices that should be offered to individual customers in real-time, per specific flights and times.

Airlines have varied their ticket prices for customers on the same routes for many years, depending on a range of factors, including how far in advance the booking is made, what website or service it’s being booked with, and even the web browser the customer is using. Delta is no exception, but AI pricing looks set to supercharge the approach.

Delta has taken heat for charging customers different prices for flights, having rolled back the decision to price tickets higher for solo-travelers compared to groups in May. It’s not entirely clear how invasive Delta’s AI ticketing will be when it analyzes customers to figure out prices, but Fortune notes that it has privacy advocates concerned.

“They are trying to see into people’s heads to see how much they’re willing to pay,” Justin Kloczko of Consumer Watchdog told the publication. “They are basically hacking our brains.” Arizona Senator Ruben Gallego described it as “predatory pricing” that’s designed to “squeeze you for every penny.”