For Air India, 2025 is about perfection, performance and optimization: Satya Ramaswamy

Air India has completely eliminated traditional data centers, embracing a cloud-first approach to enhance agility, scalability, and cost efficiency. The airline’s digital overhaul marks a major shift from legacy infrastructure to AI-driven solutions.

Speaking at the Adobe Summit in Las Vegas, Chief Digital and Technology Officer of Air India Satya Ramaswamy outlined the airline’s transformation roadmap, emphasizing automation, data-driven decision-making, and AI-powered customer engagement. “A lot of the transformation is done. This year, it’s about perfection, performance, and business optimization,” he told exchange4media.

A pivotal aspect of Air India's digital overhaul is its cloud-first approach. The airline has completely eliminated traditional data centers, marking a departure from legacy infrastructure. This transition, completed in 2023, underscores the airline’s commitment to agility, scalability, and cost-efficiency, ensuring seamless integration of cutting-edge digital solutions. 

Our key focus area has always been the customer and ensuring they have a great digital experience. That's what we think of all the time. So whether it's our mobile app, our website, AI.G, or our entertainment section; we're making a lot of effort to make it even better. They've all been award-winning channels, but we want to make them better," he said. 

He added that increasing digital’s contribution to revenue and revenues from direct channels to the overall revenue was another key area. On the enterprise side, the airline wants to optimize business performance from a cost perspective and performance perspective. It wants more direct channels and wants to reduce its reliance on indirect channels.

Coming to the new in-flight entertainment system, set to be launched in April, Ramaswamy said it would be radically different from the system of any other airline. “We’re building it from the ground up. It’s an optimally designed system for those kinds of devices. It’ll be a beautifully designed user experience, and it’ll be a connected system as many of our aircraft will be fitted with satellite-based broadband. It’ll be connected to the point that you will be able to book your next flight ticket from the entertainment system of the flight you’re on. And it will be completely personalized.”

Indeed, a core component of Air India’s transformation strategy is its AI-infused operational framework. The company has incorporated AI across various touchpoints, particularly in customer service. Ramaswamy highlighted AI.G, the airline’s Chennai-based chatbot, which has revolutionized customer interactions. “We used to joke that we are the original AI—Air India,” he quipped, adding, “The cost of a query in AI.G is one-hundredth of the cost in a call center.”

Since its launch in May 2023, AI.G has handled over 8 million queries, averaging 30,000 daily interactions. Notably, it achieves a 97% containment rate, resolving most inquiries autonomously while escalating only 3% to human agents.

Beyond AI-driven customer support, the airline is also modernizing its in-flight entertainment (IFE) systems. A new, advanced IFE platform is set to launch in April, promising a vastly improved passenger experience.

Air India’s digital transformation has directly impacted its market performance. Over the last three years, the airline has witnessed unprecedented growth, expanding its fleet from 70 to 300 aircraft and increasing its market share from single digits to 30%.

Revenue generation has also seen a substantial shift. The airline’s ability to segment and target customers more effectively has contributed to a 40% increase in revenue per seat.  “Our capacity has increased 4x,” Ramaswamy stated.  “And the yield of the airline—about 40% more per seat—we are able to generate after all the transformations, including digital transformation.”

Moreover, the integration of digital sales and targeted marketing strategies has accelerated sales growth by 4.5 times. Ramaswamy also emphasized the airline’s efforts to enhance its Net Promoter Score (NPS), a key metric reflecting customer satisfaction, which has significantly improved—especially on key international routes like Delhi–New York and Delhi–London.

Air India’s transformation journey underscores its commitment to innovation, efficiency, and superior customer experience. By embracing cloud computing, AI-driven automation, and strategic partnerships, the airline is positioning itself as a global leader in aviation technology. Air India has partnered with Adobe for its digital transformation.