How Azure AI helped Air India reinvent customer service by answering 40,000 daily queries instantly

If a customer asked Air India’s ‘AI.g’ agent about taking their beloved Labrador on an upcoming flight, it would respond with unexpected empathy. “I’m glad you’re taking your dog with you,” it might reply. “Here’s what you need to know about weight limits and cabin travel.”

No one has specifically programmed the agent to handle questions regarding furry family members—it just understands that a Labrador is a dog, a dog is a pet, and Air India’s pet policy therefore applies. At the same time, it knows how to use natural language that the customer might expect from another person.

The moment captures Air India’s progress as a leader of AI innovation within its industry over recent years, thanks to a proactive mindset. When Microsoft launched Azure OpenAI in November 2022, Dr. Satya Ramaswamy, Air India’s Chief Digital and Technology Officer, didn’t hesitate.

“We faced a big challenge in millions of customer queries, which were overwhelming our support channels. The result? Rising costs, slower response times, and frustration for both customers and staff,” he says.

So, the internal development team began working on an agentic solution, rapidly reaching a viable product that they could improve over time as they analysed interactions. Within six months, AI.g was responding to customers, making Air India the first airline worldwide to deploy generative AI for customer service at scale.

AI agents can offer customers more flexibility

The improvements since then are profound. AI.g currently handles about 40,000 customer queries daily across more than 1,300 different questions—from booking changes to refund requests. Since launch, it has resolved more than 13 million conversations with a 97% success rate. That means only 3% of queries are escalated to a human agent.
“AI.g now handles 97% of 4 million-plus customer queries. We’ve saved millions, but the real win is customers aren’t waiting—they’re served. Fast answers for them, unlocking real problem-solving time for our people,” says Dr. Ramaswamy.

In fact, about half of Air India’s customers now choose AI.g as their first preference when contacting the business. The other half still prefers human agents, and that’s not a problem. The developers built in customer choice from the outset, as flexibility offers a superior user experience. Some flyers still prefer to speak with a person, and the airline respects that. The benefits extend to employees as well. Contact centre workers no longer spend their days answering a deluge of repetitive questions. As a result, they can better manage the complex cases that require more nuanced judgment and problem-solving skills.

“Employees are doing things that are more value-added,” says Dr. Ramaswamy. “I think it helps with morale…because now they get to contribute at a higher level.”

Building on these successes, Air India is working to transform other parts of its organisation. The team is trialling AI agents that orchestrate complete workflows across different systems, such as for refund processing, which could compress timelines from weeks to hours.

It’s unsurprising that Dr. Ramaswamy’s advice to his peers is to wholeheartedly embrace the new capabilities offered by agentic AI, benefiting companies and customers alike. “A lot of the things that are pain points for organisations—[the technology to help] is there today,” he says. “You don’t need to wait for a later time.”