United Airlines, headquartered in Chicago, announced Wednesday that it will stop AI assistants and agents from completing ticket purchases on its systems, citing data privacy concerns and federal regulations the airline says automated tools cannot meet.
According to the Wall Street Journal, United said AI booking tools risk exposing sensitive customer data and could complete purchases a customer never intended to make. The airline also cited a legal obstacle: Federal Aviation Administration and Transportation Department rules require airlines to present certain information directly to customers, something an automated agent cannot always do. As one example, United noted that an AI agent cannot attest during check-in that a passenger’s bags are free of explosives, as federal rules require.
Under the new policy, AI tools including Meta’s Muse and OpenAI’s Dots can still search United’s flights and pricing for a customer. But they will not be able to complete a purchase on United’s website. The airline said its back-end systems can already distinguish bookings made by individuals, traditional travel agencies, or AI agents, and that AI-driven bookings currently make up a small share of its business. United said it will continue evaluating the technology as it develops.
The move puts United alongside Amazon in restricting AI purchasing bots, a more cautious position than other major carriers have taken. Southwest Airlines rolled out a ChatGPT plug-in this year that lets customers search its flight inventory through the chatbot. Delta said AI assistants can complete bookings once authenticated, with added safeguards for what it calls
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