Korean Air has revealed plans to create an AI-powered contact center (AICC) by leveraging Amazon Web Services’ tech infrastructure.
Announced at a company kickoff event in Seoul, Koren Air outlined improvements in personalization and efficiency as some of the key benefits that the AICC will bring to the company’s customer service offerings.
By incorporating Amazon’s innovative tech solutions, the Korean airline hopes to build a cloud-based intelligent customer service platform that utilizes AI advancements to power voice bots and chatbots that will handle customer queries.
The company has also confirmed that the new AI-powered contact center will incorporate direct customer interactions and utilize call log analysis in an aim to boost service quality.
Moreover, Koreain Air believes the AICC will enhance operational efficiency through cost reduction, centralization of management, and expansion of service channels—“surpassing” the service provided by traditional contact centers in the process.
Kenneth Chang, Chief Marketing Officer at Korean Air, discussed how the new contact center will impact customer experience and trust, commenting:
“Providing personalized experiences and swiftly resolving issues are key to developing and reinforcing customer trust.
Our partnership with AWS will leverage advanced AI technologies to transform the way we interact with our customers to enhance the customer experience.
Korean Air has earmarked September as the proposed date to consolidate its current call center infrastructure into a single AWS platform, with the company also unveiling plans to integrate machine learning and generative AI (GenAI) by February 2025.
But what are the wider ramifications of pursuing an AI-only customer service approach?
All in on AI
Korean Air has described its latest AICC venture as part of the company’s strategy of enhancing its “digital transformation capabilities to maximize customer satisfaction.”
Yet, Korean Air’s customers were not exactly dissatisfied to begin with. In the annual World Airline Awards run by Skytrax, the company was voted the 10th best in the world, placing above the likes of American Airlines, British Airways, and Delta.
Interestingly, the former of these three airline behemoths also recently made news for laying off 656 members of their contact center team, as part of the company's plan to “elevate” its customer support offerings by creating a single Customer Success team.
American low-cost flight provider Frontier Airlines actually took things step further by completing removing its telephony support option, with customers only able only to interact with a human agent over online chat.