Riyadh Air has teamed up with IBM Consulting to create what they claim is the world's first artificial intelligence (AI) native airline.
Launched in March 2023, Riyadh Air is a digitally-driven, full-service airline that aims to connect passengers to more than 100 destinations around the world by 2030. The airline says it wants to reimagine the way its employees work and engage with travelers in the AI era, using generative AI (GenAI) and agent AI capabilities built into its workflows.
The company has collaborated with IBM on a multi-year project involving 59 workstreams and more than 60 partners, including Adobe, Apple, FLYR, Microsoft, and Oracle. IBM Consulting Advantage is being used to enable seamless execution of the end-to-end technology strategy described by IBM and Riyadh Air.
“We had a clear choice: be the last airline built on legacy technology, or be the first airline built on a platform that will define the next decade of aviation,” said Adam Boukadida, Riyadh Air's chief financial officer. “With IBM's help, we have removed 50 years of legacy in one fell swoop. Riyadh Air is not just built for today, it is built for the future, paving the way for many airlines to follow in the years to come.”
The company is introducing a personalized digital workplace powered by AI agents as it prepares to hire more people. IBM says this will give employees a chat-first entry point into human resources, simplifying workflows and accelerating self-service for employees and managers.
There are also AI-powered mobile applications to connect and integrate employee and guest travel. IBM said it is building a proactive, context-aware, agent-based, AI-based concierge experience for employees that can suggest the best actions for each persona interacting with a guest. IBM says this will allow flight and ground crew to provide customized services, such as prompting staff to provide priority service to customers who are likely to be late.
AI-enabled voice bots are being used to provide another channel for personalized support based on contextual data, which IBM says can anticipate travelers' needs and improve the overall travel experience.
“We are currently using a large language model from Watsonx.ai that has been fine-tuned with Riyadh Air's own knowledge base,” said Sandeep Hari, senior partner at IBM Consulting. “We are also incorporating data from existing systems, including operational and commercial data from early test flights and loyalty data from the recent launch of the Sfeer program.”
The system is hosted on the Microsoft Azure cloud and uses Watsonx Orchestrate, Watsonx.ai, and Watsonx.governance running on Red Hat OpenShift, which Hari said supports digital sovereignty.
Regarding computing power, Halli says: “We use Nvidia GPUs. [graphics processor units] Hosted on Microsoft Azure, including high-performance options such as A100 and H200. These provide the computational power needed to run advanced models efficiently and at scale. Also uses standard CPU [central processor unit]-based Azure resources to lighten your workload. ”
With the first flight underway and first commercial service scheduled for early 2026, the three-year collaboration between Riyadh Air and IBM is at a pivotal moment.
“As a company born in the AI era, Riyadh Air is redefining what is possible in aviation, and IBM was honored to help realize that vision,” said Mohammad Ali, senior vice president, IBM Consulting.
