What Delta Airlines Can Teach Us About AI

A couple of weeks ago, we came across a story about a behind-the-scenes transformation happening at Delta Air Lines. Delta is using AI to help sort and route luggage—an operational process that is highly manual, detail-oriented, and critical to customer satisfaction. According to the airline, the new system has improved baggage transfer success rates by as much as 20%.

What caught our attention wasn't just the result. It was how Delta talks about AI.  Paul Buckley, Delta's Director of Operations in Atlanta, explained: "We see AI as an enabler, an enabler of performance, and giving the tools to our people to go produce at an even better level." Not a replacement for people.  An enabler for people.  That perspective resonates with us because we're seeing something similar in energy permitting.

Like airline baggage operations, permitting is a process that requires enormous attention to detail. Teams of highly skilled professionals spend countless hours gathering information, updating documents, checking for inconsistencies, and ensuring compliance across hundreds or thousands of pages.

The goal isn't to replace those experts.  The goal is to give them better tools.  At Permeta, we're helping energy developers and permitting teams use AI to reduce manual work, improve consistency, and accelerate permitting timelines. The experts remain essential. AI helps them focus more of their time on analysis, judgment, stakeholder engagement, and decision-making.

The final quote in the Delta story may have captured it best: "You have to change with the times to be relevant." That's what we're seeing across industries. The organizations that successfully adopt AI aren't replacing people—they're finding new ways to help people perform at a higher level.  Energy permitting is no exception.

Full story that appeared on May 25, 2026

https://www.npr.org/2026/05/26/nx-s1-5801537/atl-airport-atlanta-baggage-handling-delta