Air India bags FlightGlobal Digital Leadership award for tech transformation
Annual Airline Strategy Awards recognise leadership and excellence across the global aviation industry
Air India has won the prestigious Airline Strategy Award for Digital Leadership from UK-based aviation publication FlightGlobal, becoming the sole recipient of the honour this year for its technology-led transformation since returning to the Tata Group in 2022.
The award was presented to Air India Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Campbell Wilson and Chief Digital and Technology Officer Dr Satya Ramaswamy at a ceremony in London organised by FlightGlobal in partnership with management consulting firm Korn Ferry.
The recognition acknowledges Air India’s rapid digital transformation, with the airline building a cloud-based technology ecosystem, introducing artificial intelligence (AI)-driven solutions and modernising customer and employee platforms as part of its ongoing turnaround strategy.
The annual Airline Strategy Awards recognise leadership and excellence across the global aviation industry. The winners are selected by an independent panel comprising industry analysts, consultants and former airline executives. Airlines such as United Airlines and Ryanair have received the Digital Leadership award in previous years.
Accepting the award, Wilson said the recognition reflected the progress made by Air India since its return to the Tata Group and underlined the airline’s focus on using technology to improve customer experience, strengthen operations and empower employees. He said the award reinforced Air India’s ambition of becoming a world-class global airline through digital innovation.
Ramaswamy said digital technologies and artificial intelligence had become the backbone of modern airline operations and customer service. He said Air India had expanded from operating only a handful of technology systems to more than 140 enterprise platforms in just over two years, enabling the airline to modernise operations while enhancing passenger experience.
As part of its digital overhaul, Air India has built a cloud-only technology landscape comprising over 140 enterprise systems, a transformation it said was completed in about two years, significantly faster than the industry average for projects of similar scale.
The airline has also introduced new digital customer platforms, including its revamped website, mobile applications, notification systems, inflight entertainment platform and AI-powered virtual assistant, AI.g. According to the airline, its mobile application has been downloaded over 17 million times and holds a 4.8-star rating on both Apple’s App Store and Google Play Store in India.
Air India said it has also developed advanced data analytics platforms to support data-driven decision-making across departments and equipped pilots, cabin crew and aircraft engineers with iPad-based digital tools to replace paper-based processes and improve operational efficiency.
The airline highlighted the technology integration carried out during the merger of Air India and erstwhile Vistara, saying more than 140 technology systems, over 10 million loyalty programme members, around 300 aircraft and over 30,000 employees were integrated within a year.
On the artificial intelligence front, Air India said its generative AI virtual assistant, AI.g, launched in May 2023, has handled more than 26 million customer queries with a reported 97 per cent containment rate. The airline also said that over 30 AI-based initiatives are currently under development as it continues to expand the use of artificial intelligence across its operations.
