American Airlines explores using artificial intelligence for fare management

"I don't think it's appropriate," Isom said on American's July 24 earnings call. "This is not about bait and switch. This is not about tricking. And certainly, from American, it's not something we will do."

American has since clarified that any potential use of AI would focus on automating and expediting the process of filing millions of fares daily across its network, rather than personalizing prices based on individual customer data.

Industry analyst Henry Harteveldt commented on the development: "What AI will do is allow airlines to be more responsive to market changes and be more competitive as a result," said Harteveldt, president of Atmosphere Research Group. "The way I interpret this is that American is going to use AI to, frankly, be more competitive with other airlines, especially airlines that may be charging less."

Delta has stated that its own use of AI involves only publicly available data and general industry trends as part of its pilot program with Israeli tech firm Fetcherr.

Beyond fare management, Johnson noted that American is exploring other uses for AI technology within its operations. The airline already employs generative tools to help manage disruptions such as delays or cancellations and sees further automation as valuable for improving efficiency during operational challenges.

"It's a business that is enormously complicated," Johnson said Thursday. "And the ability to have automation that can, in effect, produce answers more comprehensively and faster is always going to be valuable for us."