Air India, an airline owned by the Tata Group, recently announced its plans to modernize its digital systems and adopted ChatGPT-driven chatbot, by investing a sum of USD 200 million as the initial investment. The digital transformation programme named as ‘Vihaan.AI’ has made significant progress and multiple initiatives have been successfully completed, with many more in progress.
The airline is set to spend more in the coming five years and to deploy the cutting-edge technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI) and quantum computing, to solve various complex challenges. Also, the customer engagement system has been upgraded with the website and mobile app modernisation, user-friendly customer notifications system, ChatGPT-driven chatbot, in-flight-entertainment system modernisation and customer service portal with real-time customer support request tracking.
Air India has invested in building a state-of-the-art digital and technology team that is based in Kochi and Gurugram, as well as in Silicon Valley, USA. It is also focusing on having a common system across the full-service and the low-cost segments in order to maximize economies-of-scale and economies-of-learning across the group airlines, driven by common platforms and a shared world-class team.
The scope of the transformation includes commercial, engineering, operations, ground handling, finance, human resources, and corporate functions. With an approach of being cloud-only, mobile-friendly, design-rich, AI-infused, and digital-first, the progress has been fast.
Satya Ramaswamy, the Chief Digital and Technology Officer of Air India, said that the airline is working towards employee empowerment with the deployment of digital workplace tools, employee engagement and self-service portals, mobile devices, automated crew pairing and rostering, and crew management and crew disruption management.
Other operational improvements are passenger service system and departure control system, sales system, engineering management system, turnaround management, fuel management and sustainability.
The Tata Group, one of India’s largest conglomerates, acquired Air India in January 2020. It owns four airlines in India, namely Air India, Air India Express, AIX Connect and Vistara, a joint venture with Singapore Airlines. The modernisation of digital systems of Air India is set to improve customer engagement, operational performance, employee empowerment and efficiency.
