‘I think it’s a mistake’: Delta CEO Ed Bastian refuses to call it ‘artificial intelligence’ because it scares people

Ed Bastian has a bone to pick with Silicon Valley’s marketing department. “I think it’s a mistake to call anything artificial,” the Delta Air Lines CEO told Fortune in a wide-ranging conversation, backstage at Great Place to Work’s For All Summit in Las Vegas. “You want to scare people? Tell them that artificial intelligence is coming for you.” Bastian said he refuses to use the term inside Delta, preferring instead to call it “augmented intelligence” — a framing he argues is more honest about what the technology actually does. “I want our employees to see it as a tool to enable them to do their jobs better, not to replace them, but to enhance them.” The distinction matters in practice, Bastian argued, saying Delta has no intention of using AI as a headcount-reduction tool. “At the end of the day, we know those job skills are going to change, as it always has. But one of the things with AI is it’s changing more rapidly than people anticipate. And you’ve got a lot of hype around it.” We need to bring the pressure down, he said. Where automation frees up Delta workers from gate phones or reservation desks, he said, those people are getting redeployed to serve customers more directly. “To the extent there’s less need for more people at a gate or more people on a phone, we’ll redeploy those people to better serve customers even more,” he said, adding that Delta has a “higher calling” to provide the best service and the best care, and strive to do it better, even against a punishing backdrop for air travel of late. Fuel prices loom over business Telling Fortune and Great Place to Work CEO Michael Bush onstage that “pressure is a privilege,” Bastian noted that fuel prices can double in 30 days, as they just have. Wars can break out. Geopolitical shocks — the kind now roiling global markets, from trade disputes to regional conflicts — ripple immediately into airline demand and costs. “Just this year, look at everything that’s happened,” Bastian said. “Fuel prices spiking,…