The next time you book a flight on Delta Air Lines, artificial intelligence may play a role in determining the price you pay.

The Atlanta-based carrier indicated that it will increase the use of AI in its ticket pricing model, with the goal of influencing 20% of its domestic flights by the end of 2025.

Delta president Glen Hauenstein said during the company’s second-quarter earnings call July 10 that the airline currently uses AI to price about 3% of its flights.

“We like what we see. We like it a lot, and we’re continuing to roll it out,” he added.

During the company’s investor day last November, Hauenstein indicated that the airline was working toward eliminating static pricing altogether, favoring a dynamic pricing model.

Delta is partnering with Israeli-based AI travel firm Fetcherr in rolling out its AI flight pricing strategy. Fetcherr also counts WestJet, Virgin Atlantic, Azul, and VivaAerobus among its clients.

According to The Points Guy, airlines have deployed AI in recent years for a multitude of operational uses and products, including enhanced bag-tracking features that integrate with Apple AirTags, gate technology to prevent line-cutters, and improved tools to help passengers rebook when flights are delayed or canceled.

Airlines have also upgraded their revenue management systems—a tool crucial in determining flight pricing—and they are now equipped to assess factors such as supply and demand more accurately for a particular flight.

When combined with AI, these revenue management systems could better determine ways to extract even more money from the flying public, leading to better profit margins for the airlines.

After two tumultuous years at the helm of X, CEO Linda Yaccarino announced her departure from the company last Wednesday. Who will replace her—as X is absorbed into Elon Musk’s AI venture xAI—remains uncertain.

What most agree on: the next leader will look very different.

“I don’t recall anyone who told the ad community to ‘go fuck yourselves‘ and then said, ‘you know what? We really need a strong ad-sales-based CEO,’” said Matt Prohaska, CEO and principal at media advisory firm Prohaska Consulting.

Advertising on X before Musk’s takeover generated upwards of 90% of the company’s revenue. Since Yaccarino was appointed CEO in May of 2023, following swaths of big brands abandoning the app over brand safety concerns exacerbated by Musk’s lax approach to content moderation, some brands returned with reduced spend, while others faced litigation.

But while X’s battle with the ad industry flares, advertising is becoming less central to its business model in the wake of the company’s $45 billion all-stock acquisition by Musk’s AI firm xAI in March. X’s advertising-dependent model could soon be supplanted by a primarily subscription-based AI service, with X’s rich data used to train LLMs. 

In this emerging paradigm, any successor to Yaccarino would need to offer technological know-how. 

“X’s priorities have shifted since Yaccarino became CEO in 2023,” said Jasmine Enberg, vp and principal analyst, social media at Emarketer. “While X still needs advertisers to pay the bills, the company is now focused on AI. Yaccarino’s departure paves the way for X to lean harder into this new direction, and X will likely look for someone who is more suited to the AI era.”

xAI’s takeover of X, taken with the tectonic shifts happening under X, may nullify the need for a traditional CEO altogether. As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Yaccarino was effectively demoted in X’s merger with xAI.

Musk could tap an operational leader to keep the engine of X, the social platform, running smoothly while he manages xAI, the AI powerhouse. 

X could “get by just with having a GM, or a traditional CRO,” said Prohaska. “I don’t see Musk needing or wanting a ‘name’ externally this time around.”

This kind of leader could be pulled from X’s existing talent pool, in theory. John Nitti, X’s global head of revenue operations and advertising innovation, would be an obvious contender for a CRO role, according to Andrew Buckman, chief growth officer at media company Azerion. 

“What the platform may actually need is a COO-style leader: someone to drive day-to-day execution, strengthen advertiser relationships, and run the platform with discipline—while Musk retains strategic oversight of the AI-driven future,” he said. “It is a familiar Musk playbook: centralize vision, decentralize delivery.”

Potential candidates might include current X leaders like Nitti, global head of marketing Angela Zepeda, or head of Americas Monique Pintarelli, according to a Wall Street Journal report from last week.

If he’s looking beyond X’s four walls, Musk will need a leader who can marry media, content, and monetization expertise with tech savvy, said Javier Rodriguez Horta, global marketing strategy practice lead at marketing consulting firm CvE. VidMob CEO Alex Collmer and Meta alum Carolyn Everson stand out as strong options, he said.

On the more speculative side of the spectrum, Ana Milicevic, cofounder and principal at marketing consultancy Sparrow Advisers, posited: “Perhaps the best CEO for X isn’t a person but an algorithm.” 

Still, many are skeptical that X’s business will remain focused on advertising: “Elon could tap one of those capable [internal] execs if they’re interested in leading the dwindling ad practice,” Prohaska told ADWEEK.

BoltChatAI’s parent company, Bolt Insight, has named Eric Dolan as head of North America.

In this role, Dolan will be responsible for leading business activities across North America for the U.K.-based company, focusing on expanding the adoption of Bolt Insight’s research solutions, which include its AI-based qualitative research platform BoltChatAI. 

“I’ve spent my career at the intersection of insight, strategy, and innovation,” said Dolan. “What drew me to Bolt is their belief that AI should make research more human, not less. BoltChatAI combines cutting-edge technology with deep qualitative rigor. That’s the kind of change the industry needs.”

“Eric recognizes both the strategic pressures brands face and the power of AI to unlock faster, deeper consumer understanding,” said Bolt Insight CEO and co-founder Hakan Yurdakul. “He’s exactly the kind of leader we need to help more companies make smarter, behavior-based decisions at scale.”

Previously, Dolan, who has 15 years of insight leadership experience, was most recently at Kenvue, with previous stops at Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson.

According to Bolt Insight, its BoltchatAI platform has already been adopted by over 100 brands worldwide, with capabilities like AI-moderated conversations, dynamic probing, stimulus upload, multilingual capabilities, and meta analysis.

Perplexity first teased its AI browser, Comet, in February. Today, the company began rolling it out to Perplexity Max subscribers, who pay $200 per month, with access available by invite only. The rollout will expand gradually over the coming weeks, prioritizing users on Perplexity’s growing waitlist.

Comet integrates the startup’s AI-powered search tools and assistant, aiming to “transform entire browsing sessions into single, seamless interactions, collapsing complex workflows into fluid conversations,” CEO Aravind Srinivas wrote on X.

Srinivas said he pitched Google “a long time ago” to make Perplexity the default search engine on Chrome, but the company declined. Meanwhile, search queries on Perplexity are growing by 20% monthly.  

ADWEEK has reached out to Google for comment.

Elsewhere in Silicon Valley, OpenAI is reportedly preparing to launch its own AI-powered web browser designed to challenge Chrome’s dominance. According to Reuters, the browser is expected to debut in the coming weeks and will use AI to “fundamentally change how people browse the web.”

Sources told Reuters the browser is designed to keep some user interactions within a native ChatGPT-style interface, reducing the need to click through to external websites.

ADWEEK has reached out to OpenAI for comment. 

The launch of Comet—and OpenAI’s upcoming browser—signals a growing effort by AI startups to chip away at Google’s dominance in search, which plays a key role in its ad business. Comet is built on Chromium, the Google-backed open-source framework that powers Chrome. Meanwhile, the rise of AI-native search engines like Perplexity and ChatGPT is already exposing cracks in Google Search’s stronghold.

Meanwhile, Google faces increased scrutiny from regulators amid an ongoing antitrust trial focused on its search dominance. Perplexity is already capitalizing on these regulatory tensions. Earlier this year, the startup struck a deal with Motorola to preinstall its assistant on new Razr devices—a move Srinivas previously said wouldn’t have been possible without the ongoing antitrust case.

Perplexity has even expressed interest in acquiring Chrome if regulators force Google to divest the browser.

Imagine a future where the emerging tech radically transforms human dating experiences.

On this episode of TechMagic, tech futurist Cathy Hackl explores first hand the future of love and dating in the age of AI and humanoid robots. 

Cathy’s experiment with AI matchmaking shows its impact and limitations on human connections, as well as the importance of preserving human interactions and communications using the AI tech.

Come for the tech, stay for the magic!

Episode highlights:

Cathy Interviews Two Humanoid Robots — Cathy speaks with two humanoid robots on love and connection, gaining insights into how AI is responding to questions about love.

The Impact of AI in Modern Dating — Cathy shares an insightful perspective about the need for human connection over dating a humanoid robot. She highlights the ultimate point of dating, which is to find warmth, connection, and presence—which isn’t provided by AI.

The AI Dating Models — Cathy discusses one of her experiments with AI matchmaking, which was to bring two people together at a TED event she attended and find out if they are a match. 

The Humanoid Love — Cathy talks about her latest experience with dating four AIs: Chad (ChatGPT), Jim (Google’s Gemini), Mateo (Meta AI), and Claude (Anthropic). She shares how much fun the experiment was and how it’s shaping her views on love.

No longer a dim idea on the horizon, artificial intelligence has become part of everyday life at advertising agencies across the country. More than two-thirds of agency employees report using the technology a few times per week or more, according to a recent survey of ADWEEK readers.

At the same time, advertising jobs aren’t increasing.

Preliminary figures from the Bureau of Labor Statistics show employment at U.S. ad agencies rose slightly in May to 220,100 positions. On a seasonally adjusted basis, however, the number of industry jobs remains 3.5% lower than a high of 228,000 recorded in April 2023.

Several factors have contributed to this lack of growth.

Economic uncertainty related to global trade wars is one. Omnicom’s takeover of rival IPG is another.

“They are looking to be as lean as possible on paper, meaning there is a greater level of scrutiny given to any hire,” said Sasha Martens, president of recruiting firm Sasha the Mensch, about Omnicom’s planned acquisition of IPG.

AI replaces entry-level positions

Another element putting pressure on the decision to bring on more workers is the rise of AI, which agencies are embracing to do a variety of tasks, from copywriting to ad buying. Just over half of social media managers, for instance, say they can’t imagine doing their job without the technology, according to survey results from social media performance platform Hootsuite.

Additional employment statistics suggest AI is hitting entry-level jobs harder than more senior roles.

As Patrick Garvey, founding partner at ad agency We Are Pi, put it: “Now AI hoovers up the grunt work, so agencies are starting to skip the junior rung altogether.”

Examining a sample of nearly 50 U.S. marketing and advertising companies—from ad giants IPG and Omnicom to Publicis agencies Digitas and Starcom—figures from employment data provider Live Data Technologies reveal staff positions have declined more than 10% since January 2022. Manager and director jobs, meanwhile, have remained relatively steady during the same period.

“All the routine tasks once handled by junior creatives, media planners, and account coordinators are increasingly being both automated and outsourced,” said J. Scott Hamilton, president and CEO of Live Data Technologies.

A view of jobs by department offers further insight into changes occurring throughout the industry.

Information technology and business management are the only areas experiencing growth, per Live Data Technologies. Every other team—from engineering to marketing and product—has seen its numbers shrink.

Unlocking the door with AI

In June, WPP chief executive Mark Read stated AI will alter the advertising workforce, eliminating some jobs while creating others.

This shift is already well underway, with AI appearing in job requirements at a growing pace. Indeed, mentions of AI in global job listings for marketing and advertising roles have increased by more than 67% so far in 2025 compared to the same time last year, according to a recent report from software company Autodesk.

“We’ve begun to notice AI skills, training, and program knowledge appearing more in job specs, particularly in project management and operational capacities,” said Helen Kimber, founder of Creative Connections, a talent acquisition firm that works with global ad agencies.

For people looking to enter the ad industry, thinking of AI as an opportunity, rather than an obstacle, could be key to getting doors to open.

“More than once it has been mentioned to me that younger incoming talent is naturally more fluent with AI,” explained Martens from Sasha the Mensch. “Companies are keen to find people who are very comfortable with it.”