The Future Is Here: Leveraging AI And New Technologies For Greater Customer Service

Transcript

Zhenyuan Zhang:Welcome.

Daniel Galpin:I thought before we get started, I'll ask each of the panelists to just briefly introduce themselves and give a quick thought on the subject, and then we'll kind of get into the subject matter. Start with you.

Chris Rogerson:So hi, my name is Chris Rogerson. I'm the Regional Director for Asia-Pacific at Inmarsat Aviation, based here in Singapore. Very interesting panel today. Obviously, we've got a wide range of experts here, and for me, we were discussing a little bit earlier, but, you know, it becomes a technology question, especially from a satellite provider talking to the airlines about connectivity and what they want to do in-flight. You know, I think it's a— it was considered a nascent industry in terms of in-flight connectivity, but now it's becoming more of a must-have for the airlines.

Katrina Korzenowski:Thanks very much. Katrina Korzenowski from SITAONAIR. I'm the Regional Vice President for Asia Pacific. So SITAONAIR is a dedicated aircraft business within the SITA Group. So for us, it's very much about service provision and leveraging connectivity nose to tail. So I think this is a very interesting discussion as well about how you leverage technology, certainly with regards to the overall passenger experience.

Zhenyuan Zhang:Hello, good afternoon everyone. Thanks for the invitation that gives me the opportunity to share what we are doing in China market as LCC and what we understand about digital transformation. At the beginning, I just want to share some information about Spring Airlines. As you may know, Spring Airlines was set up in 2005. At that time, we had only 3 leased A320s, but our load factor achieved 95.4%, the highest ever for airlines. Right now, we have more than 80 aircraft, fly to more than 10 countries, and with 200+ routes. Last year, we achieved revenue of 11 billion RMB, which equals $1.78 billion. marking a 32% increase according to 2016. We not only focus on domestic market, but also open more and more international routes. Spring Airlines is headquartered at Shanghai Hongqiao Airport. It currently bases its aircraft in Shanghai, Shenyang, Shijiazhuang, and Shenzhen. It also maintains 4 international bases in Thailand, Korea, and Japan. So, welcome to China and welcome to choose Spring Flight. Thank you.

Kevin Clark:Good afternoon, my name is Kevin Clark. I'm the Chief Executive of Bluebox Aviation Systems. We supply inflight entertainment and ancillary revenue systems. Our most interesting product at the moment is a portable wireless streaming system which both delivers content but also collects data as well, and we found there's a huge amount of interest In one, the portability that that brings, but also the access or ability to deliver services that up to this point couldn't possibly be delivered in aircraft. So it's a very dynamic and changing environment, and we're glad to be a part of that in the industry.

Jonathan Newman:Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Jonathan. I'm part of Caravelo. We're a travel tech company. We're based in the beautiful city of Barcelona. We specialise in 2 distinct areas. One in post-sale optimisation and helping airlines generate new sales products, and also in creating automated agents or AI-driven chatbots for the travel industry.

Daniel Galpin:Thank you. So actually, as I was thinking about the subject of this panel, it kind of really made me think about my trip from London and how that's changed over the years. I probably, like many and a growing proportion of people, I used my phone for virtually every aspect of the booking process. I kind of searched for flights. I booked my flights and my hotel via the airline app. And I even got through airport security with the boarding pass on my app. So I think this is— in addition to that, I got Uber on the side using my app. So this kind of use of mobile has really been has changed incredibly. But there's also— I think there's still a way to go. While the plane I was on was constantly transmitting data continuously to the ground, there was no onboard Wi-Fi. I think also the other area which we're going to talk about later is personalisation. And it's something that probably still has a way to go. My booking process was pretty efficient, but there was no overt personalisation to the booking process. And despite, kind of, I think some pretty significant potential benefits, while I sat in my seat, the IFE was a pretty generic kind of IFE experience as well. So I think there's still a long way to go. So my, I think my first question will be to Zhang Duan. Airlines are obviously investing heavily in digital capability. How is Spring investing in, how is Spring using these new data sources And what are your kind of goals for doing so?

Zhenyuan Zhang:Well, I think digital transformation is the change associated with the application of digital technology in all aspects of human society. So for Spring Airlines, our digital strategy is using digital technology as a tool to execute the quality service delivery to passengers, and at the same time, we also focus on How to improve operational efficiency and increasing overall revenue. As LCC, we always putting our eye on how to cut down costs and earn income. Today, I will not focus on the end-to-end self-services because we have all done a lot on it. As LCC, I have to do all the things faster. I have to make sure our demands can be met in the right way. Sometimes excellent ideas are not enough, but the data can tell us where we can start. Undoubtedly, how to make good use of data is key to our business. It directly impacts our revenue and safety. So actually, I would say the direction of innovation and digital transformation for both LCC and full-service airlines are the same. We are now both in the in the transformation and benefit from it. However, LCC as its business specialty, we should be more eager and hungry to look for innovative ideas and faster to implement as it is improved to be helpful. And then we have set up a research centre in Shanghai, and the purpose is to have a group of people working on the innovation by using digital ways. So far we have about 32 people in the institute, and with a setup in 2015, we have implemented 10 projects. We also have an internal policy for innovative incentive. Anyone can bring the new ideas to the management team. If it was accepted and implemented, there would be bonuses for the staff. I think we have a lot to do in the future, and in this way, we will substantiate our capability and make sure we will be one step ahead of the market.

Daniel Galpin:Thank you. As kind of vendors, I'm interested, do you see a difference between LCC customers and full-service customers? Are there different priorities, different kind of spend profiles?

Kevin Clark:Yeah, definitely. I mean, I think the Conversation with LCCs generally starts from the point of view of how can we monetise, where's the ancillary revenue potential, and looking at ways, you know, everything has a cost associated with it to which there must be a revenue, and the revenue should be greater than the cost. So normally with a full-service carrier, it starts from the point of view of how can we enhance the service or develop the service or deliver better service. Whereas with an LCC, it typically starts at the other end of the spectrum. And that's not to say they're polarised. They do actually meet in the middle because there are things that are— that will deliver ancillary revenues but also deliver better services as well. So they're diverse. They're not exactly poles, but the perspective of the conversations quite often start from different places.

Chris Rogerson:I think Kevin makes a good point. I mean, when we talk to airlines, if it's a full-service carrier versus an LCC, Obviously, the full-service carrier can look to monetise that investment and that business case in other parts, whether it's for a value play, you know, but an LCC, obviously, you know, they want to make sure that they're monetising that asset from day one.

Daniel Galpin:Yeah.

Chris Rogerson:And I think what the LCCs are looking for is a more disruptive business model. And we've found that with a lot of the partners that we've been working with recently, you know, they're local, they have access, and they've got a wider holistic view if I talk about the inflight connectivity piece. They're not just looking at what you can make from a passenger session. They're looking at the full business case, which is— which I think the LCC is very important. It's all driven by the business case.

Daniel Galpin:Is there a conflict there between— it sounds like they are more willing to be disruptive and potentially more innovative, but yet they want to see instant returns. Is that a conflict, or is it just—

Chris Rogerson:I think it's a conflict. I think it's a good thing because it drives innovation. So I think what we're always looking for in the market is innovation, and some of these guys that are coming in with fresh ideas I've seen, I think, as many of you produce customer surveys and passenger surveys.

Daniel Galpin:So I guess for this, this question is really trying to drill down to what is it that you believe that customers really want to see? What is the— beyond price, what are the things that you think customers really want to see? I think it's the experience.

Zhenyuan Zhang:Well, I think the one important thing from the airline perspective is passenger experience. I can share an example. Spring Airlines passengers can have their baggage information immediately after scanning the barcode on their boarding pass.

Kevin Clark:That's great.

Zhenyuan Zhang:It is through the image recognition in the baggage transport area and in line with IATA 753 resolution. And the image recognition technology can— people are happy to have it because they can check their baggage information at any time and make them relax en route. I think this is one example.

Daniel Galpin:Yeah, any other thoughts from the panel?

Katrina Korzenowski:I'd agree on the passenger experience side. I think what we're doing is now kind of moving to, you know, the digital journey of the passenger, and obviously that starts, you know, well before they board the aircraft. And I think then certainly the challenge for service providers in the connectivity world is really ensuring that that is a seamless journey. So I think that's very much what we're starting to see emerging and very firm requirements from airlines. And I think that extends whether it's an LCC or a full-service carrier as well.

Chris Rogerson:I'll just add a couple of points, small points, onto Katrina's there. But, you know, we're certainly seeing the loyalty play coming in. And, you know, we did some recent research in terms of a passenger survey, over 9,000 customers and passengers interviewed. And what we're really seeing now is that the availability of a high-quality— and it needs to be high-quality, globally available broadband connection— you're looking at 78% of people that have bought Wi-Fi will actually repurchase and actually rebook onto that airline. And I think it's important. And then when Katrina talks about the digital journey, actually, if you talk about where you're going to buy the connectivity in that booking flow, the earlier you put it into the booking flow, the more likely that customer is to purchase. As you go through that journey onto the aircraft, You're losing about 20 percentage points of likelihood of purchase.

Daniel Galpin:It's interesting. I mean, I think, I think, um, probably on kind of following on that point, a lot of the benefit people see from AI and kind of new technology is, is being able to personalise those, those, um, those offers to people, kind of making sure you're targeting the right people at the right time. Um, do you think, do you think the technology is advanced enough to deliver that? It doesn't feel like it's there now. That kind of level of personalisation, is it coming? How close are we?

Katrina Korzenowski:I think definitely, you know, it's sort of coming, and we see some real examples of that, certainly with regards to, you know, inflight connectivity, integration of frequent flyer programs, really being able to pinpoint, understand that customer as well, you know, being able to, you know, pre-purchase connectivity in the lounge to be able to use on board the aircraft. So I think, yeah, that's been a really key area of interest for us with the airlines that do have connectivity, is that next step of integration.

Chris Rogerson:Yeah.

Katrina Korzenowski:And we see that whole frequent flyer loyalty side as being very much a big driver of that personalisation.

Daniel Galpin:I mean, how good do you think we are at predicting customer behaviour? I would think it's very challenging. I kind of— I booked my own business flight to Singapore for a couple of days, but using the same account, I'll book a family holiday with 2 small screaming children. Very different profiles in those 2 bookings. How close are we to kind of having that technology, do you think?

Zhenyuan Zhang:I think we're getting there.

Kevin Clark:I think it's getting there. I mean, there are— I mean, the apps you use probably give you the option, or many of the apps you use give the option to select whether it's a business trip or a personal trip, whether it's hotels or whatever. I know that's what happens to most of mine, so you're getting a little bit of that. So the technology is there and the capabilities are there, but the idea that the data is captured and it's recognising you, doing a lot with you, there's still a ways to go in that. And of course A little bit of a stumbling block is, you know, recently with the GDPR rollout in Europe in particular, and that's making those who were maybe trying to push a bit faster on how the knowledge or the passenger information, or indeed anywhere where information is held, actually how far do we go in using that before we cross a boundary that maybe people are uncomfortable with, and the pushback is we have to go further back. So where I've seen it is actually you're making choices as you go through rather than necessarily it's Is kind of harvesting previous data and making sure that— because there is some sensitivities, and I think that's still got a ways to go yet.

Chris Rogerson:I think they also— I mean, they're getting there. If you look at specific personalisation, you know, on airlines. So Singapore Airlines is a very good example whereby they know that I'm a frequent flyer. They know that I've got a level of loyalty with that airline. So when I get onto the aircraft, I get a personalised offer knowing that I get free usage of data. What they don't know is that my daughter, who might need a specific type of plan because she wants to watch a particular type of show to keep her quiet for that 14-hour flight, you know, that kind of level of— even though she also actually, by the way, has a Singapore Airlines account— that level of personalisation isn't there. But I think that's obviously very deep integration where we're looking to get to. But I think there's certain airlines that are leading the way in that, and I think Singapore Airlines are doing a very good job of that.

Daniel Galpin:So Jonathan, Caravelo offer services that interface with the airline booking engines, check-in processes. How challenging has it been to kind of interface with a lot of legacy systems, deal with very kind of unique custom-built systems?

Jonathan Newman:That's a really good question. It's getting easier. I mean, it's being talked about now as the API economy, that you should be able to build interconnected across lots and lots of different sets of data, lots of different interfaces. And certain PSS are making that easier. As an example, Amadeus with its OpenAPI platform is making life easier for smaller, scruffy groups of developers like, like Caravelo. It's not always been the case, and it's often been quite hard, and that's for a couple of reasons. Firstly, PSS technology is typically quite sort of— it's old messaging. So it's not exactly robust enough for scruffy developers to go in and start playing around with. Yeah, and secondly, of course, PSS want to monetise their own products and services within that. But it is getting easier. And I mean, it's still the backbone of I mean, do you think we can continue just bolting on high-tech solutions onto legacy systems?

Daniel Galpin:Is there going to be a point where the whole thing gets revolutionised, or is it just too embedded?

Jonathan Newman:Goodness, I think that's a topic for a panel all on itself. I mean, I think the future of the passenger PSS experience is going to be hugely different. and the way that airlines manage their inventory is a very, very big topic. I think what companies like we do is we do apply a layer of new technology on top of existing legacy systems. I don't see that changing for the moment. The PSS are changing. They are enabling their airlines' content to be more readily exposed. NDC is a perfect example, whether or not it's the right messaging standard for the future, but at the very least what IATA has done with NDC is kind of said to airlines, you have to enable your content and your systems to be exposed in a meaningful, easy, and quick way so that customer expectations can be better met.

Kevin Clark:And that raises a very interesting point for vendors in general. I mean, one of the areas we recognised early on is you can't, as a vendor, we can't deliver everything, particularly if you're a small vendor and you want to have a particular specialism and niche. But the ecosystem and the application environment is very wide and very dynamic. So what we've got to do is create environments that allow, you know, very easy integration of other applications. And whether, you know, the vendor is the prime delivery of the system, or in fact actually it's a third-party application that's delivering the greatest value, you've got to recognise that we're all part of an ecosystem. And actually, a little bit to, you know, Spring talking about the dynamism in the business, you know, we've got to be dynamic as well, and as vendors in general, in what we deliver. And it's incumbent upon us to deliver platforms that others can make use of.

Zhenyuan Zhang:Yeah, I see from the airline perspective, we are not only working with aviation industry, but cross-border working with third parties in lateral market as well.

Kevin Clark:Right.

Zhenyuan Zhang:And as LCC, we don't have any airlines. But our frequent flyer program is different from full-service airlines. But still, we want to know—we want our passengers to be our loyal customers. How to keep them on flights? You know, large airlines have cooperation with with hotels, with banks. What about us? We want to make it more flexible, more usable, and more we see in Chinese. JDC. Meaning more keen and down to the earth. So you know, in China nowadays, more and more people go out for a day without any money, but a smartphone.

Kevin Clark:Mm-hmm.

Zhenyuan Zhang:You can use a mobile phone to do anything— chat, communication, post, checking flight boarding, and pay through many tools like WeChat, Alipay. So we want to make it more interesting for our passengers, especially for the young ones. We want to make it more fashionable. So we want to cooperate with other partners and to build ecosystem.

Daniel Galpin:Yeah. That kind of raises one of the other things I was going to talk to you, Jonathan, about. Some of your products actually enable airlines to interface through different platforms using kind of messenger apps as well. I'm just interested as to kind of— there's long been a drive for airlines to drive business to their direct channels, their website. Is that something that's kind of lessening, or is it kind of case by case, country by country?

Jonathan Newman:It's not necessarily whether or not you're driving a customer to your dot-com or to transact through any other channel. I think what airlines now are looking to do is to be in the channels that are right for their customers, to be where their customers are. And especially with the generational shift, To new customers that don't really have— that don't go to airline.com first, whether it's— whether they go to metasearch or wherever else, but they're not instinctively going to airline.com. And airlines recognising that and being able to expose their content meaningfully, whether it's in WeChat, whether it's in Facebook Messenger, or or Slack or Line, but they're doing so in order to be immediate, to be intuitive where their customers are, and to be able to provide the right kind of services in that channel that the customer expects.

Daniel Galpin:Katrina, so SITA have been public advocates for open system architecture and onboard connectivity. I think this is probably a theme that we've seen throughout today's conference, but also in the panel already, was this This must engage— this must require engagement and cooperation across a number of different vendors. How likely is it that you're going to get this kind of cooperation, this level of cooperation that's required, and what's kind of progress so far?

Katrina Korzenowski:Yeah, thanks. It's a really— it's a great question. It's a very interesting one. So I think, you know, from our perspective, we see this need for kind of an open cabin environment, which is is really about, you know, service provision and a unified passenger experience. So the technology is an enabler. Airlines make certain decisions about technology on different aircraft, either for offerability in terms of, you know, I guess, you know, what fits their model at the time or what's available, and that will continue to evolve. What doesn't change is the need to be able to provide this unified passenger experience. So, so for us, that's really been a big focal point in delivering that in the market. As you said, it comes with challenges, and the challenges are that you potentially do need to work with a number of different connectivity providers within that an airline has. But what we've seen is that there is a willingness to do that, and that an airline is very much in the driving seat for that. We have worked with a number of airlines on that, and I guess one of the most prominent ones is Emirates, where we do provide very much a unified passenger experience across their fleet. So, so what that means essentially is, you know, regardless of the technology on board the aircraft, the service is being managed, retailed to the passenger in a consistent way. So we really think that this is really very much the future, certainly as technology evolves. And so I think, you know, the challenges can be overcome. It's in the market today. But also we're seeing a lot of airlines actually out looking for partners to be able to do that. So from a SITAONAIR perspective, You know, we're really very much focused on service provision and the role of this unified passenger experience provider.

Chris Rogerson:Katrina makes a valid point. I mean, you know, what the airline really is driving the conversation— airlines are making different decisions for different fleets at different times. They're not necessarily rolling out onto a fleet-wide solution, and ultimately what really matters is what the passenger's experiencing. I think we as As vendors need to realise that that's the important piece of flexibility and not be, you know, whether it's Ku, Ka, Inmarsat, Viasat, GO, you know, actually a lot of airlines are using all of these at once. But really, that passenger on that seat just wants to have a unified portal, unified access to the internet, and get on and do the services they want to deliver.

Daniel Galpin:It's probably a kind of nice segue into some recent news, which is that Inmarsat and Panasonic have recently announced a strategic collaboration. Appreciate it. I won't ask you too much details about the actual deal itself, but the vendor market currently is pretty fragmented. There are a lot of kind of different players. Do you think this kind of vertical consolidation is going to become more likely in the future?

Chris Rogerson:Yeah, I think just to touch on the Panasonic collaboration, I think really what that's all about is innovation. You know, it's not M&A, it's not a joint venture. You know, there's no equity transaction in there at all. It's just a market leader in the satellite industry with a market leader in the airline services industry coming together and realising that, you know, we both excel in our different areas and actually the sum of the two parts, you know, is quite valuable. So, you know, we're working together now to see where we can innovate together and that's going to take a little bit of time to work through. But I think what it shows is that the industry is very fragmented, to your point. For the airlines, we talk to the airlines every day, You know, there is a fair amount of confusion out there in terms of, you know, what satellite network, what constellation, you know, what cabin network, what IFE choices. Especially when it comes to the line fit options, you know, I've got a box to tick, but which one do I tick? So I think what we've done, maybe we've kickstarted a bit of an acceleration in that area. I think there's certainly more consolidation to come. I think that should be welcomed, but I think it's going to take many forms. It's going to be some M&A, there's going to be some joint ventures. And I think that's just going to evolve. But I think really what the Inmarsat-Panasonic thing has shown is that, you know, 2 competitors, which we were, can come together in the voice of innovation. And I think that's the key for me.

Daniel Galpin:Any other thoughts from the panel on consolidation or—

Kevin Clark:I think, I mean, yeah, there's bound to be some consolidation. There'll be new entrants popping up as the opportunities develop. That's the nature of a dynamic industry. It happens the same in the airline industry as it does in the In the technology sphere, I mean, I think the one thing to bear in mind is, you know, the traditional part of the industry that would be looking, for example, at IFE, were those airlines that were flying long-haul services, of which there's a finite number, say several hundred of those. If you look at the capabilities of the technologies that are available now for delivering services, whether it's disconnected IFE or connected IFE or just connected systems, The capability, the technical capability, and the price points of those have moved so much that actually that market's turned from being maybe 200 airlines as it may have been 5, 10 years ago to now 700 or 800 airlines. So it's much more widely available, much more widely applicable. So yes, it's a dynamic market. That means it's fragmented because everyone's looking at opportunities and how we differentiate. And over time, yeah, that will cause consolidation. I think that's— That's inevitable, but not necessarily a bad thing. You know, things bubble up to the level where, you know what, there's a bit of consolidation play here. Whether it's based on pure economics or whether it's based on technological alignments, all of those come into play.

Chris Rogerson:Just to build on Kevin's point, actually, I mean, even though we're going to see that consolidation of the established existing players, I think we're certainly going to see lots of new players coming out. The people that are disrupting the disruptors, there's certainly a bunch of those. And we started working with some very interesting local partners Yeah. We've been working with some interesting customers recently. You know, AirAsia with Rocky, even though Rocky is part of the AirAsia group, actually they're managing the whole IFE ecosystem for AirAsia, and they run as a business in their own right, and they're doing some pretty interesting things. We started working with a local Indonesian company called Mahata, who have a very interesting proposition, and looking at not just connectivity in terms of selling, selling plans, actually that's secondary for them, but looking at the whole e-commerce advertising platform. And really, that's how these new guys are looking to come in and actually change the market around and disrupt it.

Katrina Korzenowski:I think it tends to be, to Chris's point, tends to be, you know, some of these larger local markets, domestic markets, where obviously, you know, maybe the traditional models don't necessarily fit. They're really starting to, as, you know, as Chris mentioned, really kind of build something different and something new, and it's purpose-focused.

Daniel Galpin:I guess there are, there are no veteran AI firms out there, you know, all this is pretty, pretty new stuff. So, yeah, yeah. One of the— I guess one of the most, uh, kind of going back to, um, the main theme in artificial intelligence, I think one of the most developed applications of AI today is, um, is chatbots, which is, you know, something that we've all used, I think, at some point. something Yeah. that's been used by airports, airlines, and across other kind of industries as well. Where do you think this is going, Jonathan?

Jonathan Newman:Where it's going is one thing, but where it's come from is another. So if I can give you an example, one of our initial launch customers, an airline, Volaris in Mexico, was the leading low-cost carrier in that region. They implemented our technology. They launched Bane about 18 months ago, and they started it initially to do retail and very quickly realised that instead it had 2 other distinct properties. Firstly, it was customer service. They now transact more than 50% of their customer service inquiries inquiries via the bot in Facebook Messenger. And they've done this over time because they've positioned it well. So they've actually said, we are going to automate our customer service as much as possible. Their ambition is to be able to close their call center by the middle of next year.

Daniel Galpin:That's amazing.

Jonathan Newman:So to be able to redeploy all of the staff that they have operating in their call center and instead have all of their their customer interactions, their customer engagements done through automated agents in Facebook Messenger and other channels.

Daniel Galpin:That's interesting because normally the transaction is kind of viewed as a slightly easier bit. You know, you can kind of understand that I want to book a flight to, but actually customer service questions—

Jonathan Newman:There's so many other, but there's the very basic stuff. So there's answering the frequently asked questions. That's kind of the basic stuff. But then it's the more challenging things which typically people have made telephone calls for. You know, I want an invoice. Okay, you know, I want to be able to cancel within 24 hours, which a lot of airlines allow you to do. All of these things which can and should be automated, and there's no reason why you can't put those, those automated services into a channel which is, which is intuitive. So that's one area, customer service. The other is around communication. So actually proactive communication, being able to notify customers Yeah, on time, and especially when there might be disruption to services, but also by giving customers just helpful information around gate changes, around where baggage is, which belt baggage is coming from. And going back to your point, to your question earlier about connectivity, there are great open APIs. I mean, SITA has plenty.

Kevin Clark:Yeah.

Jonathan Newman:Which allow you to actually get a lot of this information and deliver it to your customers in intuitive platforms. And it's really just pulling together commoditised natural language understanding and those open APIs.

Daniel Galpin:And the customers are kind of— I think your product, they're kind of explicitly chatbots. They're not pretending to be humans.

Jonathan Newman:No. I mean, I think even the very best chatbots, and I think we've done done a few. I mean, if I take Marvie as an example, which we launched with Scoot earlier this year, has got a great individual tone of voice, but there's no way it could be passed off as a human, certainly for more than one or two interactions. And I think any company, whether it's an airline or any other service provider, that tried to impersonate a human by a robot, I think they'd come unstuck pretty quickly.

Zhenyuan Zhang:As an airline representative, I think Spring have implemented chatbots Yeah, well, I think AI can do most of the repetitive work, the similar duplication of the work. I can share one more thing we can— we have already successfully launched, the interactive voice replay for our call centre. It is machine learning. The machine learns to reply by the data input. The more input, the more accurate it will be while answering questions. And And providing services. We do this because we found through voice contact there will be more sales and service selling. And the customer do not know who they are talking to. It is human being voice, just like any staff in the airline. You can ask questions, you can book services. We have very good results from the machine. And it can help our sales and providing services.

Daniel Galpin:Do you think people are ready for a kind of person-free process? Not having— if they close the call centre and there is no option to speak to an actual person, is that—

Jonathan Newman:I mean, I think if you travel from Singapore Terminal 4, you can already experience a person-free travel experience. We launched a trial with one of our airline customers So we did a pilot with a customer, SunExpress, in Europe using Pepper robots. So Pepper, the robots made by SoftBank of Japan, and we implemented our Messenger chatbot into the robot and had them walking around Munich Airport. And it was great, and it was, it was very effective, and it provided customers with quick and easy answers to their questions. And I think the response rate was something like 70%. That it understood. And that's a face-to-face conversation with, with a robot. So I think customers are getting used to the fact that more conversations will be had with automated agents, whether that's over the telephone in the case of Spring, or whether it's chatting or voice with, with messengers, or even if it's with physically moving robots in an airport environment in the future.

Daniel Galpin:Given we have So many here from the kind of onboard connectivity area. I'd be just interested to think, to get your thoughts on, you know, what's coming next and what are the new kind of technologies that are going to be applied. I think, Kevin, we were talking before about the potential for kind of sensors onboard and using some of that kind of information. But generally speaking, what do you think?

Kevin Clark:Yeah, I think that's— so, I mean, thinking specifically in the cabin, There's now a lot of capability to measure things which historically have not been measured, but that would be interesting to know. I think one of the examples we talked about a little bit earlier on perhaps was the idea of sensors in seats. Each seat can have sensors in it that could collect information about, well, I guess just how the seat is being used, and you multiply that over 180 or 190 seats in an aircraft, that's a lot of data. But it's now possible to have devices on the aircraft that can collect that data. So as well as the same devices that are delivering entertainment or services to passengers can also be collecting some of that information and other information, which can then be taken, considered, harvested for all sorts of useful feedback on how the aircraft's being used or the different types of use within an aircraft. And that's That data is, you know, there's a lot of questions about who owns it and what you do with it, but there's potentially a lot of value in that. And, you know, I'm conscious of some of the conversations we've had. There are lots of interests, or there's lots of interest in capturing data from areas like seats, from other operational elements in aircraft, and using that to enhance the service, whether it's Whether it's just, take the seat example again, whether it's just how the seats are designed or how the crew interact with passengers that are perhaps sitting on seats that are exhibiting indications of discomfort, for example. So lots of stuff to happen there.

Chris Rogerson:On the sensor topic, I heard an interesting use case this morning at a different event, and there was a US carrier that had implemented a sensor into the overhead bins, much like when you drive around a car park and you're looking for a space, car drives over it, light goes red, space. Actually, what they're putting into the overhead bins now is if there's space, then, you know, the crew can know where those spaces are and think about the efficiencies that can, you know, that can give for the operations of the airline. Improved turnaround times, you know, less time trying to get everyone's luggage into that case. So certainly that's an innovation within the cabin. I think from Inmarsat's perspective, you know, we're constantly innovating and evolving our network. So, you know, we're now globally covered with With our Inmarsat 4 satellites, Inmarsat 5 coming up now, and with the Inmarsat 6s, the idea behind that is that we have the global base layer and now we're building out new launches, new satellites, lower cost per bit, smaller, more frequent launches to actually serve specific airline routes over specific hubs. So I think with any technology, whether it's on the ground or in space, you see, you know, higher throughput at a lower cost rate. So that's all positives for the airlines Because that should really equate to a lower cost to serve.

Daniel Galpin:So we have 35 minutes left. One we haven't kind of touched on yet is kind of an operational perspective. I think onboard connectivity is already delivering some benefits from things like predictive maintenance and that kind of area. What other kind of operational improvements do you think are going to be around the corner?

Katrina Korzenowski:Yeah, so you're absolutely right. So connectivity for the passenger is— obviously the trend is toward high speed and passenger broadband. But that has benefits not only in terms of the passenger service, but also for the airline itself and for the aircraft. So what we're really looking at is connected EFBs in flight, connected crew tablets, And then all of the new generation aircraft data requirements being able to be transmitted over an IP broadband link. So the benefits, and really when an airline looks at, you know, the total cost of ownership of connectivity, should really be looking at building that business case from nose to tail. Because yes, it's there for a passenger service, but really the benefits to the airline and the optimisation and the cost savings and efficiencies, you know, by way of innovation, is really a large area of benefit as well.

Chris Rogerson:And to Katrina's point, I think we quantified this with a London School of Economics study, which I'll shamelessly plug in a moment because we have some copies outside. But by 2035, we're seeing $15 billion annual potential operational savings from the connected aircraft. So to Katrina's point, it's electronic flight bags, It's improved turnaround time, it's predictive maintenance, all these pieces that actually you can deliver over a high-speed connectivity pipe, then you know you're really seeing the tangible benefits.

Jonathan Newman:Yeah, sorry, Dan, to continue on the point about the internal use case for AI. So we're partnering with a couple of airlines at the moment to actually use the same kind of technology but internally. So there's no reason why internal customers Staff, whether that be crew, ground staff, or whatever, shouldn't benefit from the same technology that the customers do. Perfect example is staff travel. So for the airline employees out there, staff travel is not always a democratic process, as in finding out whether seats are available, am I going to get on this flight or not. So why shouldn't you use messenger platforms in order to democratise that process? that information, that understanding of staff travel, and also about whether it's around rostering, whether it's around leave application, that kind of thing, making it again into an intuitive platform other than proprietary bits of software that are typically bought piecemeal.

Daniel Galpin:Zhang, do you have a— Spring Airlines using kind of AI or big data for operational benefits?

Zhenyuan Zhang:Yeah, we use big data to monitor pilot behaviour. I want to know if he follows instructions from the tower and ATC and in line with— and make sure the flight is in line with the safety regulations of CAC. And we record the communication between the pilot and the ATC, and combined with aircraft movement data, we will have a full picture on how the pilot acts In the cockpit during the flight, because as he— and to make sure he follows the instructions. If not, we will report, let them change their behaviour, because it is not related to the pilot themselves. It's also related to the safety and the comfort of the whole flight. And we use NLP technology to translate and analyse the data.

Daniel Galpin:I think we're running out of time, so I'll just maybe finish up by asking each of the panellists to gaze into their crystal ball and just think about in 5 years' time, what is going to be the single biggest change that a customer will kind of feel in air travel? Maybe Katrina, do you want to start? I think it's going to be the personalisation.

Katrina Korzenowski:Sure, I think it's this connected digital journey and it's very much a harmonised, unified experience and really seamless to the passenger. So I think that's the 5-year plan.

Daniel Galpin:Seamless.

Zhenyuan Zhang:Well, I think the ecosystem will come true and we cooperate very with every partner. And I can share one more example. Yeah. So do you know the most popular shopping website in China? Do you know Pinduoduo? Who knows this brand? Oh, I'm so sorry for the result. Okay. So you can buy almost all essentials with your friends at a sharing price, or with someone you don't know by joining a purchasing group.

Chris Rogerson:Right.

Zhenyuan Zhang:We found that the one who buys essentials for family is always the one who arranges trips for the family. So we want to link the member system together, and the customer can combine the amount of points and use them on both sides. I think the feedback will be good. And I think in this way, we will expand our market and sharing membership. So we are working with companies There are apps that you can pay bill in restaurant, buy food in supermarket, choose and buy clothes, or even go buying with strangers for one item at a lower price. I think with this successful approach, we will form another type of alliance. And we want to include more companies to our program later on. I think with moving forwards, we will do more.

Kevin Clark:As Shakespeare said, Well, in a technological sense, 5 years is quite a long time away. So I think what passengers will notice in 5 years is a much richer experience. For sure, they'll get from A to B because that's initially what they've decided to travel to do. That's what the journey is about. But they'll get a much richer experience both before they start the journey and during the journey. They'll get kind of what they want, when they want it. So notwithstanding the comments earlier about personalisation, I think the technology will have moved along very dramatically in the intervening period. So there is that, a much greater degree of feeling of personalisation, even though it might be, to use, I guess, a term that's used by another vendor, the tribes idea. The tribes, you're getting what feels like a very personalised experience, although actually there's lots of other people getting the same personalised experience. It's just to a group that fits a similar profile.

Jonathan Newman:I think it's going to be seamlessness as standard. And by that I mean there are airlines already that do have a very seamless approach to travel, i.e., you can book a— you can make a booking in one sentence, 2 clicks, get your boarding card automatically delivered, self-drop your bag, and not have to talk to a single person. an airline representative at any moment across the whole journey. And I think in the next 5 years, there's going to be a lot of airlines catching up to that standard because there's a great polarity between airlines that can do that and airlines that aren't even at the beginning of that journey yet.

Chris Rogerson:I'll keep it quick. You're much more likely to travel on a connected aircraft, I think certainly in 5 years' time. And the second point related to that is that your internet experience in the sky is going to be much more aligned to your experience that you get at home.

Daniel Galpin:Brilliant. So there's a big red light flashing at me, so I think that's probably time to call it an end. Please join me in thanking the panel.

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