Etihad says flight bookings could soon be done by an AI agent

Advances in computing power, data analytics and machine learning are revolutionising the industry

Etihad says AI will transform its services in the coming years. Victor Besa / The National

Airlines are using generative artificial intelligence to map out the future of travel, from bookings and complaints to in-flight streaming, with a focus on improving customer service and increasing the efficiency of operations.

Booking flights from your social media account, talking to an AI-powered chatbot, shorter queues at immigration checkpoints, customer complaints resolved within 48 hours, and personalised travel packages are all among changes we can expect in the coming years, Frank Meyer, chief digital officer at Etihad Airways, told The National.

“There will always be an app and a website, but on top of it, you probably will see new channels,” he said. “We've invested in a chat-based booking engine and it could well be that we master that challenge as part of our 2030 journey, and you could therefore make a booking talking to an AI agent.”

If a flight is delayed or cancelled, a passenger may in the future be able to use the airline's app for “self re-accommodation” to pick another flight or choose compensation, rather than head to a transfer desk, he said. “All of this will be automated. That's the plan at least. That's where we're headed.”

Customers can also expect to get personalised offers to match their preferences. “That can translate into proposals, packages or discounts on what we're offering to you. The starting point is we're trying to better anticipate what you'll be after,” Mr Meyer said.

“So the booking process will be more dynamic and more personal. We will use our knowledge to inspire you and make more proposals to you that will be relevant.”

The airline could also expand its customer offers on the aeroplane. “Think about the air experience as becoming more similar to being on the ground because the limitations of the bandwidth and the technology will fall away,” he said.

“Your in-flight entertainment will be integrated with your device and it will not only be a movie-playing system. In five years maybe you will be able to … order a Careem in the air to pick you up.”

Air industry experts discuss how AI can help boost the customer experience, at Aviation Future Week in Dubai. Photo: Emirates

Flight efficiencies

Up to 97 per cent of airlines and 82 per cent of airports plan to invest in AI by 2026, the Air Transport IT Insights report by Swiss aviation technology group Sita found in February. By 2026, more than 90 per cent of airlines surveyed plan to have IT in place to boost the efficiency of flight operations and aircraft turnaround because sustainability is high on the agenda, Sita said.

As the skies are becoming more crowded, flight delays are becoming an increasingly common headache for travellers.

Airlines and airports are harnessing the power of big data, machine learning and AI to predict and minimise flight delays “like never before”, Alex Brooker, vice president of research, development and discovery at Cirium, said in a June report.

Enter AI-powered delay prediction. By analysing “vast troves” of data from sources such as satellite imagery, radar, aircraft sensors and weather stations, machine learning algorithms can identify weather patterns and forecast delays with unprecedented accuracy, Mr Brooker said.

A visitor tests the Biometric Tunnel, a barrier-free airport experience for travellers, at Aviation Future Week. Photo: Emirates

'Massive impact' on airlines

Generative AI will have a major impact on the airline industry, transforming operations, revenue management and pricing models, but carriers have been slow in adopting the new technology, Mr Meyer told the Aviation Future Week in Dubai this week.

“In five years from now we will not talk about GenAI all the time any more because it's become part of every end-user device, website, mobile app … but it will change substantially the way we are working.”

Airlines are “slow in adoption, so until it has proliferated all of our back-end systems and we really understand how we compute [the data], it will take time, but I do believe this really has a major impact to the point where our processes and our organisations will change.”

Panasonic and Thales showcased their inflight entertainment systems. The Thales display is a replica of what is in store for Emirates' new Airbus A350. Photo: Emirates

Data privacy concerns

At the three-day Aviation Future Week, participants explored the future potential of Web3, AI and extended reality (XR) to help drive better customer experiences and enhance the aviation industry's processes.

Experts emphasised the importance of data-sharing among industry stakeholders such as airlines, airports and government agencies, and the need for collaboration between academia and industry to harness the full potential of AI.

Speakers also highlighted concerns around the use of AI such as data privacy, the steep cost of implementing AI solutions and the complexity of extracting data from legacy systems.

“As AI models evolve, maintaining confidentiality and minimising algorithmic bias are key challenges,” Nils Lukas, assistant professor at Mohamed bin Zayed University of Artificial Intelligence, said.

“We are researching technologies like differential privacy and homomorphic encryption to reduce privacy risks while maintaining model accuracy.”