These days, when you fly into Las Vegas airport at night, the most dramatic element of the city skyline you’ll see from the plane window is the Sphere, the giant globular venue that’s all decked out in a bright and colorful exosphere. It’s apt, then, that Delta chose the Sphere for its Las Vegas CES keynote, where it announced its vision for integrating next-generation technology into your travel experience while celebrating its centenary.
This year, the airline will introduce and AI-powered Delta Concierge into the Delta Fly app. From reminding you about passport renewal and visa requirements, to providing you with weather-appropriate packing suggestions for your trip, to assisting with way finding and security advice at the airport, the Concierge service is designed to be your personal travel butler.
Delta Concierge will eventually bring passengers personalized seat-back travel assistance.
As with all companies at CES, Delta is looking to the latest tech developments to improve its existing products and services, and AI is central to that. For an airline like Delta, AI provides the means to offer a more personalized experience to flyers, with customized advice depending on status, route and travel preferences.
“Our entire strategy is about the member and it’s about make sure the member gets what they want,” Ranjan Goswami, Delta’s SVP of customer experience design, said in a briefing with journalists ahead of the keynote. “As you log into that screen… we’re going to get smarter about what we learn about you and give you more and more relevant content.”
Passengers will able to interact with the Delta Concierge either through text or speech, using natural language. In future releases, Concierge will allow people to automatically connect to Delta Sync Wi-Fi and Delta Sync Seatback, which will provide them with personal greetings onboard the plane and know their itinerary and preferences.
“We think about the pain points, what makes travel stressful,” Goswami said, adding that he’s excited to keep integrating developments in agentic AI to make the travel experience ever more personal. “I think we’re going to be really surprised in five years, and we believe this technology is going to change the experience.”
Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi joined Delta CEO Ed Bastian on stage as the two companies announced a travel partnership that will allow passengers to earn SkyMiles through Uber bookings. Delta also announced a partnership with Joby’s electric air taxi service that will allow passengers to book end-to-end travel through Delta Concierge.
From 2026, Delta’s in-flight entertainment system will start to become entirely cloud based, with 4K HDR QLED displays and Bluetooth connectivity for your personal devices. Onboard, SkyMiles members will also soon be able to enjoy a newly announced partnership with YouTube, with free access to YouTube Premium, YouTube Music and curated content from creators.
“Viewers no longer distinguish between content from traditional studios and creator-like content,” Mary Ellen Coe, YouTube’s chief business officer, said during the keynote. “They turn to YouTube for all of it.”
Tom Brady is teaming up with Delta this year.
On the content side, Delta will also introduce a wellness-focused series this year called Well Traveled with seven-time Super Bowl winner Tom Brady. On stage at the keynote, Brady listed his top three travel wellness tips as hydration, some form of physical exercise on arrival and using time onboard a flight to stay productive.
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