Alaska Air Group Reveals Multiple AI Updates at SXSW
Share
At South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas earlier this month, Alaska Airlines SVP Merchandising and Innovation Charu Jain revealed plans to become the world’s first carrier to use artificial intelligence (AI) to dispatch ramp agents as well as updates to its AI Destination Search tool.
The announcement regarding ramp operations was made during a presentation by at the event that detailed the myriad ways the carrier is making use of AI, a topic Jain is passionate about. Excitingly, Jain will share this passion with delegates during an opening keynote at APEX TECH on May 20 in Los Angeles alongside Alaska Airlines Vice President of Guest Products & Experience Todd Traynor-Corey.
“I’ve been in the airline technology industry for a few decades, and I think this is the most exciting of times,” she said at SXSW. “I feel like a little kid; the whole world is open and there are so many possibilities to do things to help our guests, to help our employees, to make our business run better.”
“If 2024 was the year of the AI chat, 2025 is the year of ‘agentic AI’.”
Although specific details on the ramp AI remain scarce at this point, Jain told the audience that initial trials have shown “incredible results in terms of baggage performance and efficiency of using our resources.”
She also provided exciting updates about some of the airlines’ other AI applications. Firstly, she spoke about its “AI Destination Search” tool, which was trialed and launched last year and suggests destinations to potential customers depending on what they say they are interested in. Layered over OpenAI technology, it is much like a ChatGPT for flight bookings.
“I think chat and voice is a great way to launch this, but next month it’s going to be available through Google Maps, so you get a very visual experience and can see where you may want to go. We’re basically offering different ways to get to the same result,” Jain explained.
In its quest for what Jain referred to as “more fun and emotive ways” to encourage people to book flights with Alaska, the carrier has also designed a “Vibe Quiz” that was on show for attendees to SXSW.
Jain said, “This was a great way for us to use AI to help people find fun things about themselves and then actually offer three destinations, explain why those destinations make sense based on ‘your vibe,’ and then [let people] actually book them.” The Vibe Quiz was initially scheduled to go live online by the end of 2024, but is still under development.
Looking forward, Jain predicts that “if 2024 was the year of the AI chat, 2025 is the year of ‘agentic AI’.” She said Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines are taking a “careful look” at how it can “build the right agents that will help guests make bookings or our internal employees be more efficient.”
“There are so many possibilities to do things to help our guests.”
However, she also acknowledged potential pain points in the rollout of digital travel assistants. “We’re not the only ones building these agents,” she explained. “Our customers and our partners are building agents, and they’re going to be using those to interact with our brand.
“How will it work when customers have a travel booking AI agent, it comes to our website and we are trying to figure out, ‘are you a human or a robot?’ What happens when the AI agent starts calling the customer and the call center? Are we going to get inundated with agents calling our call center? Will agents start talking to agents and get into a loop? It’s not a problem everybody’s thinking about yet.
“It’s not just about the building side, but the proceeding side too […] We have to make sure our business is ready to consume this capability on the other side,” Jain concluded.
Building on the momentum from SXSW, Alaska Air Group plans additional advances in its AI-driven vision for seamless, personalized travel from pre-trip experiences to in-flight service. This spirit of bold innovation and guest-centered design will guide the conversation at APEX TECH on May 20. With Charu Jain and Todd Traynor-Corey taking the stage together in Los Angeles, attendees will gain an inside look at how Alaska Air Group plan to harmonize technology, culture, and global ambition across Alaska and Hawaiian, setting a new bar for excellence in passenger experience innovation.
At SXSW, Alaska Air Group also unveiled its “Lobby of the Future.” Click here to read more.