Air India on Monday announced major progress in its efforts to modernise its digital systems landscape, with many initiatives already completed and several more in advanced stages towards completion.
The airline has made significant investments in order to rapidly revamp its digital systems in close partnership with some of the world’s leading technology firms.
Air India has been making investing in building a cutting-edge digital and technology team with a vision to emerge as the world’s most technologically advanced airline. The digital and technology modernisation effort in Air India is being guided by Tata Group Chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran and Air India CEO Campbell Wilson.
Some of the key areas where Air India has already deployed new technology systems or is in advanced stages of deployment are:
Customer engagement: Website and mobile app modernisation, user-friendly customer notifications system, ChatGPT-driven chatbot, in-flight-entertainment system modernisation, customer service portal with real-time customer support request tracking, digital marketing, contact centre modernisation, disruption management and self-service reaccommodation, customer feedback and analysis are some of the additions under the customer engagement category.
Employee empowerment: This includes modern secure digital workplace tools, employee engagement and self-service portals, mobile devices for pilots, cabin crew and airport operations crew, learning and development tools, automated crew pairing and rostering, crew management and crew disruption management, paper elimination via digitisation and electronic contracts.
Operational improvements: Modern passenger service system and departure control system, sales system modernisation, engineering management system, flight planning and tracking, aircraft movement management, disruption management, turnaround management, fuel management and sustainability, safety management, and reporting systems.
Enterprise systems transformation: Core Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system modernisation, human resource management, procurement, materials management, digital infrastructure, and cloud migration.
The modernisation of Air India’s digital and technology landscape will also benefit all the group airlines including the low-cost carriers. Emphasis is also being laid on having common systems across the full-service and the low-cost segments to gain from economies-of-scale and economies-of-learning across all the group airlines, driven by common platforms and a shared world-class team.
“We are on a mission to delight our customers and create a sustainable competitive advantage in our operations by adopting the world’s best in digital technologies. The scope of the technology transformation at Air India is extensive and covers every aspect of the airline including commercial, engineering, operations, ground handling, finance, human resources, and corporate functions. We are empowering employees across the company, ranging from our frontline flying staff to ground crew with the best technology capabilities to help them excel at their jobs. We are adopting a cloud-only, mobile-friendly, design-rich, AI-infused, digital-first approach to all our technology initiatives that we are executing with speed,” said Satya Ramaswamy, Air India’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer.
Transformation underway
Air India’s recent push to modernise underscores the decay left by years of under-investment as Air India looks to shed decades-old bureaucratic processes and recapture customers from Dubai’s Emirates and powerful domestic rival IndiGo.
The airlines’ Vihaan.AI transformation program envisions digital technologies as a key differentiator for Air India, with an aspiration to be an industry leader in technology.
According to a press release, each initiative is powered by technology, from enhancing customer experience to transforming revenue management. The airline has already invested approximately US $200 million in new digital systems, digital engineering services, and in creating an industry-leading digital workforce.
The airlines’ objective is to transform customer engagement and improve operational efficiencies. It also expects to sustain this pace of investment over the next five years as the transformation journey shifts from catching up with world-class airlines to taking a leadership position by deploying the most cutting-edge technologies ranging from traditional digital technologies to modern generative Artificial Intelligence (AI).
“Frankly the system is almost so bad it’s good,” reported PTI, citing CEO Wilson as saying. He added that this offered the chance to start from scratch rather than “jury-rig” existing architecture.
Air India is not only reworking every aspect of operations – from systems to supply chains – but integrating four Tata-related airlines, with Air India due to merge with Vistara while low-cost Air India Express and AirAsia India also converge.
Some areas, such as technology, allow for a clean-sheet approach, the 52-year-old New Zealander said, which is why he is putting artificial intelligence (AI) and other tools at the centre of Air India’s reboot.
Modern “revenue management” software aims to stay one step ahead of demand, continuously anticipating where people want to go and how much each individual flyer is prepared to pay, rather than the old method of having one fare for each block of seats.
The result is higher revenue per flight, making it low-hanging fruit in the company’s transformation.
“This is a transformation as well as a startup,” PTI quoted Wilson as saying, who was appointed to lead the turnaround last year by Tata after it regained control of the carrier.
