Merger promises 'huge' digital upgrade for Vistara, says Air India

AI-based chatbot has helped us "drastically" cut customer service centre costs, he added

There is a need to upgrade Vistara’s digital experience, and its employees and customers are in for a “huge” digital upgrade with the merger into Air India (A-I), said A-I’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer Satya Ramaswamy on Friday.

Moreover, he revealed that A-I’s generative artificial intelligence-powered chatbot, AI.g, has slashed customer service costs so “drastically” that the airline has completely scrapped plans for a new customer service centre.

Vistara will operate its last flight on November 11 as part of its merger with Tata Group-owned A-I. It will continue to operate its fleet and maintain its schedule under its brand name until early 2025.

Vistara is a 51:49 joint venture between Tata Group and Singapore Airlines.

Speaking during the CAPA India Digital Aviation Summit on Monday, Ramaswamy said: “Our chairman (N Chandrasekaran) told me right at the beginning to focus first on fixing customer issues and removing their pain points, while addressing the enterprise-related issues in parallel. It was also clear at that time that the transformation was going to happen not just at A-I.”

“We realised that we also need to upgrade the Vistara experience from a digital perspective. The merger is set to happen soon, and Vistara’s employees and customers are in for a huge digital upgrade with the merger into A-I,” he said.

Regarding the digital focus, Ramaswamy highlighted the new A-I application (app), which has been rated 4.7 to 4.8 on app stores. “This is high for an airline app. We are benchmarking ourselves against the best airlines in the world,” he stated.

A-I launched AI.g last year. “It has been a huge success. It handles about 3,000 queries a day, with a customer contentment ratio of 97 per cent. This means it satisfactorily answers customer queries in 97 per cent of cases. Only 3 per cent of the queries get escalated to our customer service agents,” he said.

“People are floored by what it can do. It has drastically cut down our contact centre costs. Essentially, we have eliminated the need for an entire contact centre because AI.g handles all the questions,” he noted.