US, Europe airlines approach Air India for developing their Gen AI chatbots

Major US and European airlines have approached Air India for developing generative AI chatbots similar to that of the Indian carrier's AI.g, which currently handles around 97 per cent of customer queries it receives without the help of contact centre agents.

Besides, the Tata Group-owned Air India has filed for its first patent which is for the upcoming feature 'one click booking' of tickets on its website and mobile app.

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

"We are sharing the knowledge (about the chatbot) also but nobody has been able to come up with something like this yet," he said.

At a select media briefing, Ramaswamy also said some US and European airlines have contacted Air India for help on building generative AI chatbots.

"It is about thought leadership... we will help them with development," he said.

Without naming the airlines that have approached it, he mentioned they are some of the biggest airlines.

AI.g receives around 30,000 queries a day and handles about 97 per cent of the customer queries on its own without live agent support.

Since its launch in May 2023, the chatbot has handled around 4 million queries. As part of the transformation, Air India is working to become an AI (Artificial Intelligence) infused company.

"We have filed for the patent for 'one click booking' feature," Ramaswamy said and added that the feature will be introduced on the airline's website and mobile app before the end of December.

Historically, this will be the first patent for the loss-making airline, which is in the transformation phase.

According to Ramaswamy, there are also a bunch of patents in the pipeline. To a query on efforts to ensure there is no racial basis in the chatbot, he said it is "being ring fenced" to the airline's systems and knowledge.

The easy part is taking the Large Language Models (LLMs) to train the chatbot while the hard part is in building the surrounding innovations to ensure that the chatbot is "safe to use, does not have bias and limits (responses) to the queries that have been asked", Ramaswamy said.

Meanwhile, Air India is scheduled to merge Vistara with itself on November 11 while Air India Express and AIX Connect (formerly AirAsia India) merger was completed on October 1. The mergers are part of Tata Group consolidating its airline business.

Vistara is a joint venture between Tata Group and Singapore Airlines.