Over the past few years, Delta Air Lines' presence has become a staple of CES, with the airline regularly hosting splash keynotes. This year, the company rented the sphere to announce its latest slate of updates. This includes (can you guess it?) an AI-powered assistant in its app, as well as an updated in-flight entertainment system with a 4K HDR display and Bluetooth connectivity. Members of Delta's SkyMiles frequent flyer program will also soon get free access to YouTube Premium and YouTube Music on the company's aircraft. Delta announced these updates at CES 2025.
The new AI assistant, which Delta calls Delta Concierge, will roll out later in the year. Users will be able to interact with it using voice or text. In this age of large language models, this is certainly not groundbreaking. The idea here is to proactively advise and guide flyers, starting with notifications about upcoming passport expirations and visa requirements. Looking ahead, the service will also offer destination-specific notifications about local weather, for example.
Concierge will also offer directions to bag drop, Delta Sky Club and departure gates.
All of this feels useful but also feels a bit clunky, and many of these new features feel more like table stakes than huge innovations. In fact, I'm pretty sure a flyer doesn't need an AI to know if their passport is about to expire or where their connecting gate is.
The new seatback experience, which Delta describes as “the first cloud-based in-flight entertainment system,” will debut in 2026. It promises a major upgrade to existing systems with a 4K HDR QLED display, Bluetooth connectivity and a 96. Terabyte onboard storage system to store movies, TV shows, music and more.
Here, too, it seems somewhat like Delta is playing catchup. United's ongoing fleet refresh already offers 4K displays and Bluetooth connectivity, for example. That system may not be cloud-connected, but I'm not sure that matters to fliers, especially once the entire United fleet Starlink-enabled. So far, that won't include free YouTube Premium and music, which Delta plans to offer.
And because a CES keynote wouldn't be a CES keynote without announcing some concept that's unlikely to make it to market, Delta also announced Tuesday that it plans to work with Airbus on the plane's next flight test phase. The Fellowfly Project. The idea here is to fly in formation — like a flock of geese — to save energy. This project has been going on for several years. It's a nifty idea, but bringing it to fruition would require so many regulatory changes that it's unlikely to be used anytime soon.