The aim was to make Air New Zealand a better airline. (File photo) Photo: Supplied/ Air NZ
Air New Zealand is working with the organisation behind ChatGPT to expand the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to help the airline avoid flight delays.
The airline was part of a select group around the world that has been given the opportunity to partner with OpenAI, in a first of its kind collaboration in New Zealand.
Air New Zealand chief digital officer Nikhil Ravishankar told Morning Report the partnership enabled Air New Zealand to roll companion AI out to its corporate workers at pace.
It also allowed the airline to "co-create" solutions, Ravishankar said.
"So we already have about 1500, what we call, custom GPTs in the organisation. Think of them as sort of rudimentary agents and what Open AI partnership allows us to do is work with their engineering teams, and product teams to develop these solutions to solve airline problems, not just for Air New Zealand
"We're hoping that the solutions are also applicable around the world."
He said it also allowed Air New Zealand to become a "test bed" for some of Open AI's more cutting-edge solutions.
Open AI is the organisation behind ChatGPT. (File photo) Photo: Jean-Marc Barrere / Hans Lucas via AFP
"So we get first access, early access to some of these tools as they emerge and some of these tools are turning up on almost a weekly basis."
The aim was to make Air New Zealand a better airline.
Ravishankar said the airline expected to see improvements in on-time performance, integrated planning and how the airline scheduled the network it flies, and service experience for customers including product design in-flight and on the ground.
"So almost every aspect of the customer's experience with the airline will be impacted by AI and this partnership going forward."
Asked about pricing, Ravishankar said Air New Zealand was already using AI to deal with the cost of flying, which he said was complex.
"The hope really is we want it to be a force for good so we are looking at utilising AI to drive more, fairer value-centric outcomes as much as anything else."
Asked what this meant, Ravishankar said AI allowed the airline to take into account "a lot more things as we think about how we price an airline seat".
"For our regional network for example where we are a lifeline service, we could think of pricing approaches that fulfil that role that we play, versus what we might be doing in say the US market where we're trying to attract premium leisure tourists into the country."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
