The app is just one example of Saudia’s digital transformation, from creating a new virtual customer assistant and travel companion with Azure OpenAI Service to streamlining operations with Azure cloud services and Power Platform, said Abdulgader Attiah, Saudia’s chief data officer. The transformation is a pillar of a rebranding strategy that includes new services, colors, uniforms and plans to expand the company’s 140-aircraft fleet and list of more than 100 destinations.
“The main reason for our digital transformation is to power our commitment to deliver great experiences throughout our customers’ journey,” Attiah said. “Customer experience is at the heart of it.”
The AI virtual assistant announced a few weeks ago will provide a personalized, chat-based service for customers researching, planning and booking travel. Customers will be able to ask the app for travel ideas — such as a family trip on a defined budget in Europe with mountains and a 20 degrees-Celsius climate — and the app will return suggestions and flights in a seamless experience, Attiah said. Scheduled for release this year, the app will also be able to identify customers and connect them to a live agent if needed.
“Every single person can have their own personal assistant and personalize their travel with their unique asks,” he said. “That’s really powerful.”
With Power Platform, Saudia is advancing innovation among employees, who have built thousands of solutions with the low-code and no-code tools to improve business and operations, Attiah said. The solutions include the company’s 10 most used apps.
Noorwali’s app gives departures supervisors a digital checklist that helps them track tasks more efficiently and consistently. It also connects the data in their reports to a Power BI dashboard for a clear, recorded view of incidents and trends. That helps managers analyze flight reports instead of digging through emails and disparate systems.
“By using the time in a better way, we can focus on important things that might have been skipped because of the headache of the work,” said Moayyed Almizyen, a supervisor who managed development of the new system. “The ultimate goal is the guest experience.”