New Delhi: Air India has become the world's first airline to successfully deploy a Generative AI virtual agent 'Maharaja', the airline said in a statement on Friday. The agent is powered by Microsoft's Azure OpenAI service.
The project was introduced in the testing phase in March 2023. Air India claims that Maharaja has answered over half a million customer queries and currently handles more than 6,000 queries per day in four languages: Hindi, English, French, and German.
According to Air India, the pilot project which was introduced in the testing phase in March 2023, has answered over half a million customer queries and currently manages more than 6,000 queries per day in four languages.
The airline, owned by the Tata Group, is utilising ChatGPT to analyse even complex questions that it may not be able to immediately answer. This approach aims to enhance customer experience in subsequent interactions and helps the virtual agent become more attuned to natural language.
What does Maharaja AI assistant do?
The virtual agent, known as 'Maharaja,' handles a wide range of customer queries spanning 1,300 areas. These include inquiries related to flight status, baggage allowances, packing restrictions, check-in procedures, frequent flyer awards, airport lounge access, flight changes, and refunds.
Notably, the agent speaks Hindi, English, French, and German.
"Of the 6,000-plus questions received each day, over 80 per cent are successfully answered in seconds. About 15 per cent of customer queries today require additional assistance, and Maharaja recognises this automatically and orchestrates a seamless handoff to Air India's contact centre agents," the release said.
Satya Ramaswamy, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Air India said that after the emergence of Large Language Model-driven generative AI capabilities, it is increasingly seeing a definitive shift in guest preferences to use chat interactions to get the information and support they need quickly.
"We are dedicated to providing the best possible service and experience to our valued guests across channels. We also want to be very responsive to their changing preferences. After the emergence of Large Language Model-driven Generative AI capabilities, we are increasingly seeing a definitive shift in guest preferences to use chat interactions to get the information and support they need quickly and directly as compared to browsing several web pages," he said.
Air India plans to introduce more AI features
In the coming months, the airline plans to launch a host of sophisticated features, driven by patent-pending technologies. "This includes a novel user experience that changes the way customers interact with AI agents with a combination of textual and graphical interactions that can potentially further speed up customer interactions... Air India also plans to enhance the current AI agent with data-driven deep-personalisation capabilities," the release said.
Generative AI solutions employed by Air India are instrumental in automating repetitive and mundane tasks like booking, cancellation, and confirmation. This automation allows human agents to allocate their bandwidth to more complex and value-adding interactions. Air India, as a full-service carrier, is currently pursuing an ambitious expansion plan.
(With PTI inputs)
