Summary
- Air India introduces Maharaja, the world’s first generative AI virtual agent, which answers over 6,000 questions every day across 4 languages.
- Maharaja helps with easy queries like flight status and baggage entitlements, answering most questions inside 80 seconds.
- The AI agent goals to cut back mundane queries, allowing Air India agents to give attention to complex itineraries and supply higher-value interactions with passengers.
The Indian flag carrier has successfully turn into the world’s first airline to introduce a generative AI virtual agent, Maharaja. Air India launched the AI agent in a testing capability in March earlier this yr and claims that since its launch, it answers greater than 6,000 questions every day across 4 languages, Hindi, English, German, and French.
Maharaja has been recruited to assist answer as much as 1,300 easy questions across Air India, equivalent to your flight status, baggage entitlements, restrictions of things onboard and in your checked bags, alongside check-in procedures, your frequent flyer status, the status of ticket refunds, and any last-minute flight changes.
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Originating from Sanskrit, Maharaja is translated to ‘Great King,’ initially from mahānt (great) and raja (king).
Answers in 80 seconds
In keeping with Air India, Maharaja has answered many of the questions inside 80 seconds and suggests that only 15% of queries should be transferred to ‘human’ Air India contact center staff. Introduced in a ploy to cut back the variety of mundane queries coming into the airline’s calls center, it’s hoped to offer more capability for Air India agents to give attention to more complex itineraries and higher-value interactions with passengers.
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Air India’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Satya Ramaswamy, elaborated on the vision for Maharaja and what it means for the airline’s customers:
“We’re dedicated to providing the most effective possible service and experience to our valued guests across channels. We also wish to be very conscious of their changing preferences. After the emergence of Large Language Model driven Generative AI capabilities, we’re increasingly seeing a definitive shift in guest preferences to make use of chat interactions to get the knowledge and support they need quickly and directly as in comparison with browsing several web pages.”
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Behind the scenes, the airline partnered with global tech company Microsoft to interact with their Azure OpenAI service to create Maharaja, with Marco Casalaina, Vice President, AI Platform, Microsoft reiterating the joy of working with the Indian carrier:
“We’re pleased to see Air India’s successful deployment of their AI-powered agent, Maharaja, and using Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to offer a customized and relevant customer experience. We imagine that that is the start of a brand new era of customer support, and we look ahead to seeing more organizations use the facility of Generative AI and our AI-optimized Azure cloud to offer a seamless and efficient customer experience.”
Photo: Air India
A brand new generation of Air India
It isn’t any secret that with TATA’s involvement, Air India looks to rebrand itself as a number one international carrier. An astonishing 500+ aircraft order confirmed earlier this yr will mean that by March 2024, the airline hopes so as to add over 400 weekly departures, of which 200 are destined for domestic services, alongside 200 to popular international destinations.
With the long run looking vivid for the Star Alliance member, investing in high-tech, generative AI systems will further enhance the airline’s improved customer service-focused initiatives.
Sources: Business Today