Air India, a leading global airline based in India, has achieved a significant milestone by becoming the world’s first airline to deploy a cutting-edge Generative AI virtual agent named ‘Maharaja.’ This innovative virtual agent is powered by the Azure OpenAI service from Microsoft.

Since its initial launch in March 2023, ‘Maharaja’ has successfully responded to over 500,000 customer queries and currently handles more than 6,000 queries daily in four languages, including Hindi, English, French, and German.

The Maharaja AI Agent serves a broad spectrum of customer queries, encompassing 1,300 different areas, such as flight status, baggage allowances, packing guidelines, check-in procedures, frequent flyer rewards, airport lounge access, flight changes, refunds, and more.

Over 80% of the daily queries are resolved in a matter of seconds

To cater to a diverse global audience, Maharaja has been designed to communicate in four languages, ensuring seamless interactions. Impressively, over 80% of the daily queries are resolved in a matter of seconds, while approximately 15% of customer queries necessitate additional assistance. ‘Maharaja’ automatically identifies these cases and smoothly transitions them to Air India’s contact center agents.

Dr. Satya Ramaswamy, Chief Digital and Technology Officer at Air India, emphasized their commitment to providing an exceptional service experience across various customer touchpoints.

He pointed out a notable shift in customer preferences towards chat interactions powered by Large Language Models, which offer swift and direct access to information and support, as compared to navigating through web pages.

In developing ‘Maharaja,’ Air India has incorporated several patent-pending innovations, combining traditional machine learning techniques with the latest Generative AI to offer a satisfying and effective customer experience. The airline has additional innovations in the pipeline, promising further enhancements in the months ahead.

Generative AI technology by utilizing ChatGPT

Marco Casalaina, Vice President of AI Platform at Microsoft, expressed satisfaction with Air India’s successful deployment of ‘Maharaja’ and praised the use of Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service to provide personalized and relevant customer experiences. He anticipates a new era in customer service, where organizations harness the potential of Generative AI and AI-optimized Azure cloud to deliver efficient and seamless customer experiences.

Air India maximizes Generative AI technology by utilizing ChatGPT to analyze complex queries that it may not immediately address. This data-driven approach allows the virtual agent to learn and improve over time, becoming more adept at natural language understanding.

Air India adopts a strategy that combines traditional machine learning techniques with Generative AI to deliver a compelling customer experience, all while implementing safeguards to prevent biased or harmful language in its AI interactions.

Air India has ambitious plans for the future

In contrast to rule-based or keyword-based chatbots, Generative AI solutions comprehend the intent and context of user queries, generating natural and coherent responses. This enhances user satisfaction, reduces the need for human intervention, and automates repetitive tasks, freeing human agents to focus on more complex interactions.

Air India has ambitious plans for the future, with a host of sophisticated features and personalized experiences driven by patent-pending technologies, including textual and graphical interactions that aim to expedite customer interactions.

Additionally, Air India plans to enhance the AI agent’s personalization capabilities to serve as a reliable personal assistant for all air travel needs, including travel inspiration and seamless booking experiences. Support for more Indian languages is also on the horizon.”