34 / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Virtual assistants take flight Stuart Forster talks with Alex Tange of ICM Hub about the growing use of Artificial Intelligence onboard...
A
rtificial Intelligence (AI) is increasingly
we say we are building conversational AI platform for
part of everyday life. Chatbots on
airlines that help passengers pre-flight, in-flight and
websites, virtual assistants such as
post-flight. The idea is to enable contactless travel. The
Amazon Alexa and Siri, and self-driving
crew call button, for example, really is outdated because
cars all utilise AI to make decisions. As connectivity
it doesn't help the cabin crew to be more effective. The
improves, AI seems set to become integral to
call comes with zero information so crew don't know if it
passenger experiences too.
is a life-and-death situation or somebody simply asking
According to research published by the accounting firm PwC, AI has the potential to enhance productivity
for an extra pillow.”
and benefit customers while contributing $15.7 trillion
Enabling passengers
to the global economy by 2030.
“Through AI technology we can enable a system that
Accenture lists improved end-to-end efficiency,the
gives passengers additional information when they
ability to make intelligent offerings and superior
request something onboard. Perhaps they might
customer service among the benefits of AI.
request movie information through the inflight
Alex Tange, the CEO of New York-based company ICM Hub, is at the heart of this trend. He says: “In short,
entertainment system. They could say something like: 'I want to watch something that recently came out' or
onboardhospitality.com
Artificial Intelligence aviation v6.indd 34
12/14/22 07:43 AM