In the rapidly evolving world of air travel, artificial intelligence is being applied to bring innovation to the entire experience. As we navigate airports today, most of the seamless functions we take for granted—from security screening to baggage handling—are powered by technologies that include artificial intelligence. However, we have only scratched the surface of how AI can continue to transform air travel and the airport experience.
At the recent SXSW 2024 conference and festival held in March 2024, Bernadette Berger, Chief Innovation Officer at Alaska Airlines, presented the The Sky’s the Limit: How Artificial Intelligence Will Remake Airports. He shared how AI-enabled technologies are optimizing operations and transforming the passenger experience. As AI technologies such as facial recognition, predictive analytics, personalized digital assistants and real-time navigation are further integrated into the entire travel experience, airports will transform into fully accessible and immersive hubs for travel, retail and entertainment.
The panel “The Sky’s the Limit: How AI will Reimagine Airports” focused on artificial intelligence within the airport. The panel had additional aviation industry experts including Celley Buchanan (Alaska Airlines), Matt Gilkeson (Transportation Security Directorate) and Ian Law (Los Angeles International Airport).
In a subsequent interview at The Cognilytica AI Today podcastBernadette expanded her talk and shares more information for this article.
Q: How do you see your role in expanding the use of artificial intelligence in aviation?
Bernadette Berger: “I’m the Chief Innovation Officer at Alaska Airlines. I started my career in aviation. I’m a trained industrial designer, meaning I design physical and digital and spatial things, and jumped right into designing aircraft architecture for over a decade. I fell in love with airplanes. I’m a huge airplane nerd.
In Alaska, my team and I have built the innovation practice for the company. We work to bring together emerging technologies and human needs, whether for our own employees or our guests. We prototype in our innovation lab quickly to develop technology demonstrations, experience demonstrators, proof of concepts, test these experiences at the airport and ultimately bring them to our operations. That way, we can make sure that when we launch new technology, we do it quickly, but also in a way that’s still a great experience for our employees and for our guests.”
Q: How do you see AI transforming the passenger experience?
Bernadette Berger: There are two types of travelers. There are people who skate at the airport at the last minute. They don’t want to check a bag, they don’t want to hang out at the airport, and they just want to get from one form of transportation to another as quickly as possible without stopping. Then there are the passengers who want to get to the airport hours early. They want to hang out in the living room. They want to buy a book and buy coffee. They need things to be able to do at the airport too. At the panel, the first thing we talked about was how we create a space and offer to help both types of travelers.
People may not know that artificial intelligence is already very prevalent in the airport. As a passenger, you might not really feel it, because I would say that right now we’re in our era of efficiency. Our airports, airlines and security services are looking for ways to do what they do today, but more efficiently using artificial intelligence. Putting computer vision algorithms on top of all security cameras or using artificial intelligence to reduce the number of lanes to use or machines to use in security or even creating tools so our employees can To help them guests to get the customer service they need faster are all examples of how AI is currently being used in travel. All of these examples are still very much in the realm of efficiency, and I’m really interested to see as we evolve, once we just understand the data we have, where we might go next.”
Q: What are some of the challenges you see with the adoption of artificial intelligence in the transportation industry?
Bernadette Berger: Transportation is such a complex ecosystem. I mean airports are cities in themselves. Each airport is controlled and managed differently. As an airline, we operate at 113 different airports with thousands of employees working at those airports. The differences between these functions are huge.
So being able to start a conversation about how you can develop an AI solution to a complex problem, say around bags, is not always as easy as it sounds. But it’s a great application for AI because we have so much data about luggage and can be more proactive and predictive in how we move the thousands of checked bags every day.
So what we do to analyze this big, formidable challenge in our innovation practice is to analyze these human challenges and technology gaps in the smallest, fastest test that we can prove. And in this way, an entire program can involve the proof of eight different elements. First we need to collect data. Then we need an approach that can be specific to that need. We then need to communicate these results to an interaction form for a very, very busy airport employee. And we need to let our guests know about it. So we need a solution that is really easy to interact with.
In my innovation team we analyze all this. We do very rapid testing in our innovation lab, where we build things out of cardboard and wood and put up camera kits and train and refine our algorithms there. Then we take them to the airport where we can test it in the real airport environment with real passengers and real customer service agents. From all these small, quick iterations, we learn so much and we learn fast. This approach allows us to move on from programs that might otherwise take the effort of an entire team over the course of a year only to find out it’s not the right way.
Once we prove these little tests, then we take it live. And there you can say, because we’ve broken down this problem into its eight components, these are different modular ways that this AI model can align in this situation for how we handle baggage in this airport. All these steps build together. It can be very daunting for teams to figure out how to specifically apply such a broad technology topic to their challenges. But we look at it as human needs, technology gaps, and how you can find those little wins along the way.
Q: How do you see AI impacting the passenger and customer experience?
Bernadette Berger: This is really an efficiency game, right? So, the things you might feel as a passenger is just that your checked baggage has reached its destination. The things you may feel as a passenger are about safety and security. As you move through the airport, as you move through the air, you can feel that your interactions with a gate agent are really warm and personal, and they knew you had to rearrange your seats so you could sit with my family. They also knew that, hey, you might want to have a coffee and a cookie or a chocolate bar when you get on the plane.
It may seem like a good experience, but there is a lot behind the scenes working to make this happen. Biometrics is one of the things that I think is going to be a really big change for passengers, but it’s also going to continue to help us navigate your travel day more simply. If you’re traveling in a group and have four different passports, do you ever juggle trying to fumble for your phone to get your boarding pass while trying to manage all the different ways to prove that you are and that you’re supposed to be there and should be are you on this flight
We’re excited to move to a model where you can get around the airport and on the plane with just your face or just your phone, whether it’s your mobile digital ID, or comparing your pretty face to a government photo. of our services already has your driver’s license or your passport. Just comparing this photo will make it much easier for our guests to prepare for a day of travel and get around the airport. Guests can experience faster lines, fewer lines and less hassle. Nobody wants to wait in line. The hurry up and wait game is no fun.
But as we think about moving forward and we think about being proactive and predictive for our guests now, we’re thinking about how we can make that big morning rush start to taper off so there’s no lines at the airport. Because I sent you a real-time quote saying, hey, I know it’s 09:00 AM. and you run to the plane. Just one click here if you want to order your favorite coffee earlier. It will be there on the counter near your gate, ready for you. All you have to do is walk up and grab it. Just making these offers and suggestions at the right time in an interaction that doesn’t require the visitor to read and understand and make a decision has a big impact. You are in decision fatigue from the moment you arrive at the airport. It just has to be easy. Everyone wants to feel escorted from home to the plane. And if there are ways we can use our algorithms, our recommendations and our technology to do that, then we’ll make travel not only easier for everyone, but more accessible for more people.
(disclosure: I co-host the AI Today podcast)
