Maharaja, to answer all your flight related queries in 4 languages across 1300 areas
In a strategic leap towards ushering the aviation industry into the era of artificial intelligence, Air India has achieved a milestone by implementing an AI-driven agent named Maharaja.
Air India is the world’s first airline company to launch its own AI agent. The initiative to introduce this groundbreaking virtual agent was meticulously planned, and after careful deliberation, the leading carrier executed the inaugural launch in March 2023, marking a pioneering step in aviation technology.
Distinguishing itself from conventional digital assistants, this AI-driven agent possesses the remarkable capacity to address an impressive volume of 6,000 queries each day, spanning across four distinct languages. Fuelled by the cutting-edge Azure OpenAI service, ‘Maharaja’ has unequivocally showcased its qualities by effectively resolving over half a million customer inquiries.
The AI Maharaja is said to articulate in 4 languages—- Hindi, English, French and German— thus, making it fluent in international communication.
Queries resolved by Maharaja
Maharaja has been enlisted to proficiently handle a spectrum of up to 1,300 direct inquiries encompassing various aspects of Air India’s operations. These include queries related to flight status, baggage entitlements, restrictions on items both in the cabin and checked bags, check-in procedures, frequent flying status inquiries, ticket refunds, loss or damage, and any unforeseen last-minute flight alterations.
As per Air India, Maharaja has demonstrated an impressive performance by resolving the majority of inquiries within a mere 80 seconds. Remarkably, only 15% of queries necessitate transfer to human Air India contact centre staff.
Implemented as a strategic measure to alleviate the stream of routine queries directed to the airline’s call centre, Maharaja aims to enhance operational efficiency by freeing up capacity for Air India agents. This strategic shift enables the human staff to concentrate on handling more intricate itineraries and engaging in higher-value interactions with passengers.
Technology used by Maharaja
Air India strategically harnesses the capabilities of generative AI technology, employing ChatGPT to analyze complex inquiries and thereby elevate the overall customer experience in subsequent interactions. This innovative approach empowers the airline’s latest customer service platform to continually learn and enhance its proficiency, adeptly adapting to the nuances of natural language.
In a comprehensive approach, Air India integrates diverse traditional machine learning methods with generative AI, guaranteeing the delivery of an engaging consumer-oriented experience. Concurrently, the airline enforces rigorous measures to prevent any occurrence of biased or harmful language in its conversational AI system.
Air India’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer, Satya Ramaswamy, expressed his vision and purpose for creating maharaja for their company as well as customers, “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.”
