Air Canada introduces AI Labs, AI now a 'big part' of the airline

Air Canada announced (May-2019) the introduction of Artificial Intelligence (AI) Labs to its business as part of its plan to permeate AI within its operations and customer experience. The airline will be able to improve maintenance downtime, passenger experience and operational performance through AI and hopes to utilise it throughout the organisation to ensure competitive advantage within the industry. Air Canada president and CEO Calin Rovinescu said the airline is able to predict maintenance for components not yet broken, allowing the airline to repair the aircraft when less active. He noted the airline's new loyalty programme will also "make use of data that already exists for all of our frequent flyers". Additionally, Air Canada established an AI Centre of Expertise to help it deliver on its strategy. The airline hopes to become Canada's AI employer of choice within three years. "Big data and AI are now a big part of our business", Mr Rovinescu said. [more - original PR]