Air India, owned by the Indian Tata Group, has taken on a significant transformation journey to modernize their digital systems. The airline has invested approximately 200 million US dollars in various initiatives as part of this transformation effort. This investment will be maintained in the upcoming five years as the airline aims to take a leadership role in the digital space.
The airline is embracing many emerging technologies such as the usage of quantum computing and chatbots driven by ChatGPT. To further improve the customer engagement, Air India has also invested in digital marketing, contact centre modernisation, disruption management and self-accommodation, customer feedback and analysis systems. In order to build a cutting-edge digital and technology team, the company has created offices in Kochi and Gurugram, as well as in Silicon Valley in the United States.
Air India’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Satya Ramaswamy, said they are adopting a cloud-only, mobile-friendly, design-rich, AI-infused and digital-first approach in all of the technology initiatives they are executing. The scope of the transformation is wide, covering commercial, engineering, operations, ground handling, finance, human resources, and corporate functions.
In addition, the airline is trying to build identical systems across the full-service and the low-cost segments to have more efficient economies-of-scale and economies-of-learning across the parts of the Tata Group. As part of this effort, Air India is as well investing in modern secure digital workplace tools, employee engagement, and employee self-service portals among others.
With respect to operational improvements, the airline is modernizing different systems for passenger service system and departure control system, operations and fuel management and sustainability, sales system, engineering management system, turnaround management, crew pairing and rostering, and crew management, to name a few.
Satya Ramaswamy is Air India’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer. He has taken a lead hand in this digital transformation journey and succeeded in modernizing Air India’s digital systems on different levels including customer engagement, employee empowerment and operational improvements. In general, the transformation has improved Air India’s service, efficiency and experience for all customers.
