“Maharaja” Takes Flight: Air India Launches World’s First AI Virtual Agent!
Air India, owned by Tata Sons, has made history by becoming the first airline in the world to adopt Artificial Intelligence in the form of its virtual agent ‘Maharaja.’ This groundbreaking move has set a new benchmark in customer service, as Air India launched the pilot phase of this innovative AI-based agent in March 2023.
Powered by the Azure OpenAI service, “Maharaja” has effortlessly solved more than half a million customer queries since its pilot debut. Designed to handle an impressive range of 1,300 topics, this AI marvel intelligently answers inquiries about flight status, baggage restrictions, flight changes, refunds, check-in procedures, frequent flyer rewards, airport lounge access, baggage restrictions and more.
Seamless multilingual support
The Maharaja’s language skills extend to four languages: Hindi, English, French and German. Remarkably, 80 percent of the daily flow of over 6,000 queries are answered quickly and accurately within seconds, highlighting the effectiveness of this virtual assistant. For the remaining 15 percent who need additional support, Maharaja seamlessly routes them to Air India contact center representatives, demonstrating the harmonious integration of AI and human assistance.
The future of customer service
Dr. Satya Ramaswamy, Air India’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer, highlighted the airline’s commitment to providing unparalleled service. He noted, “In response to changing guest preferences, we’ve seen a shift towards chat interactions based on Large Language Model-driven generative AI. Maharaja, with its patent-free innovations, combines traditional machine learning techniques with the latest generative AI capabilities to deliver a delightful and powerful customer experience. Expect more innovations in the pipeline in the coming months.” “, TOI said.
Marco Casalana, vice president of Microsoft’s AI platform, expressed his delight at Air India’s ground-breaking implementation of Maharaja and the use of Microsoft Azure OpenAI service. Casalana sees this as the start of a new era in customer service, stating, “We believe this is the start of a new era in customer service, and we look forward to seeing more and more organizations leverage the power of generative AI and our AI-optimized Azure cloud to deliver a seamless and efficient customer experience.”
The future of air travel is here and Air India is a pioneer navigating the skies with innovation and customer-centric technology.
