After Air India, IndiGo launches AI-powered chat assistant for customers

IndiGo on Monday said it has launched an Artificial Intelligence (AI)-powered chat assistant "6Eskai" to address customer queries in 10 different languages.

India's largest airline has followed the footsteps of Air India, which launched its AI-powered chat assistant "Maharaja" on November 10.

While Maharaja is powered by Microsoft's Azure OpenAI service, 6Eskai is powered by Microsoft's GPT-4 technology.

6Eskai is capable of performing a wide range of tasks, including booking tickets, applying promotional discounts, booking addons, performing web check-ins, helping in seat selection, planning trips, answering FAQs (frequently asked questions), and connecting customers with an agent, IndiGo noted. Moreover, the bot is not only capable of understanding written or typed language, but also verbal instructions using speech-to-text models.

"Early results from the soft launch indicate a remarkable 75 per cent reduction in customer service agent workload, showcasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the bot," IndiGo's statement noted.

Furthermore, 6Eskai makes the booking process extremely simple, using natural language conversations to guide our customers seamlessly through the end-to-end booking journey, it mentioned.

Air India had on November 10 stated that Maharaja has successfully answered over half a million customer queries since its pilot launch in March 2023, and it today manages over 6,000 queries a day in four languages.

Air India’s Maharaja manages an extensive spectrum of customer queries across 1,300 areas related to flight status, baggage allowances, packing restrictions, check-in, frequent flyer awards, airport lounge access, flight changes, refunds, and more.