Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport is using ‘Lost and Found Software,’ an artificial intelligence program, to help retrieve items travelers have misplaced.
The new effort has resulted in a return rate of 90%, CBS News reported this month.
“Once we find that item for them, they will be so happy,” DFW employee Mikha Sabu told CBS.
Lost and Found Software is used to track lost items. Before travelers’ property can be returned, they must report it missing and describe it. That information is then checked against property found by airport workers or otherwise brought to DFW’s lost and found department at the baggage claim area in Terminal E, which then gets entered into the software.
The software tries to match pictures and descriptions of lost items with those that were found, per CBS.
CBS reported that more than 1,000 rings and watches have been found at DFW this year and that a wedding dress was returned to its owner just 24 hours before her wedding day. According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), 90,000 to 100,000 items are left behind at checkpoints each month.
However, it is not just property that travelers misplace at airports across the country. A report by Statista shows that the TSA collected more than $926,000 in unclaimed change in fiscal year 2019. JFK topped the list at $98,110 left behind, and DFW ranked fifth with $40,218 collected.
DFW opened on January 13, 1974. More than 73 million customers enter the airport each year. The airport offers flights to 193 domestic and 67 international destinations through 28 airlines, including American, Delta, and United.
