While people around the world are getting to grips with the everyday applications of artificial intelligence platforms such as ChatGPT, Swiss International Airlines (SWISS) has found its own uses for AI technology.   

SWISS announced that it will be trialing an AI-powered system to count passengers on selected flights between the months of April and June this year. 

While a crew member will still walk the aisle with a pacer in order to perform a manual passenger count during the trial stage, a camera will be temporarily installed in the cabin to record passengers as they board.  

The images will be used to train an AI system under varying light conditions and in a number of different circumstances, such as a mother carrying a child in her arms. According to SWISS by digitalizing the passenger count, the airline aims to “enhance security and simultaneously ease the workload of the airline’s cabin personnel”.  

The Swiss flag carrier has taken particular care in highlighting the compliance of this trial with both European Union and Swiss data protection regulation (GDPR and FADP respectively) and the fact that all passengers will be informed beforehand, no individual person will be identified through this system and all images will be later deleted. 

After the conclusion of the test period, SWISS will decide whether it will move forward with the introduction of the technology.