Air India approached to develop AI chatbots

Major US and European carriers have approached Air India to develop generative AI chatbots, similar to AI.g. The Indian carrier currently handles around 97% of customer queries without the assistance of contact centre agents. Air India, owned by the Tata group, has also filed its first patent for a new feature called ‘one-click booking’ on its mobile app and website.

Air India’s Chief Digital & Technology Officer Satya Ramaswamy on Tuesday said a lot of innovations are being done so that AI.g stands apart.

He said: “We are also sharing the knowledge of the chatbot but nobody else has been able yet to come up something like this.”

Ramaswamy told a select group of media that US and European airlines had contacted Air India in order to build AI chatbots.

“It is all about thought leadership…we will help with development,” said he.

He mentioned that the airlines who approached it are among the largest. AI.g handles 97 percent of customer queries without the need for live agents. The chatbot has answered around 4,000,000 queries since its launch in May of 2023. Air India has been transforming into an AI (Artificial Intelligence infused) company as part its transformation.

“We have filed a patent for a ‘one-click booking’ feature,”

Ramaswamy added and added that the feature would be introduced on the airline’s website and mobile application before the end of the month. This will be the first ever patent for a loss-making airline that is currently in the transformation phase.

Ramaswamy said that a lot of patents are in the pipeline. In response to an inquiry about efforts to ensure the chatbot is free of racial biases, he stated that it is “being ring-fenced” within the airline’s systems.

Ramaswamy explained that the easy part was to use Large Language Models to train the chatbot, while the difficult part was to build the innovations that would ensure that the chatbot “is safe to use, doesn’t have bias and limits the responses to the questions that have been asked”, Ramaswamy stated.

Air India Express (formerly AirAsia India), and AIX Connect, a merger of Air India Express with AIX Connect completed on October 1st. The mergers are a part of Tata Group’s consolidation of its airline business. Vistara, a joint venture of Tata Group and Singapore Airlines, is part of Tata Group’s consolidation efforts.