AirAsia partners Google Cloud to power its tech ambitions
AirAsia says it is making strides towards becoming a travel technology company, as it partners Google Cloud to integrate machine learning and artificial intelligence (ML/AI) into “every aspect of its business and culture”.
Tony Fernandes, AirAsia Group CEO, said: “Google Cloud enables us to make full use of the data we own, opening up new opportunities and enabling us to build new businesses. We are building two big platforms: airasia.com, which will be our one-stop digital travel platform where our customers can book their travel needs from flights, accommodation, tours, ground transport to entertainments; and BigLife, our lifestyle site which will be like Kayak, Tripadvisor, Groupon and eBay rolled into one.”
BigLife will incorporate all the digital investments under AirAsia’s digital arm RedBeat Ventures, including “money app” BigPay, inflight connectivity platform Rokki, online marketplace Ourshop and logistics services RedBox and RedCargo.
“AirAsia started with G Suite to transform the way its organisation works,” said Diane Greene, CEO of Google Cloud. “Now, with our advanced analytics platform and machine learning services, AirAsia will be able to digitise every aspect of its business to better serve their customers.”
The LCC will work with Google Cloud to drive better demand forecasting and more targeted marketing, improve customer experience and loyalty through personalisation, maximise operational efficiency and reduce risk through predictive maintenance, real-time weather forecasting and crew optimisation.
In collaboration with Google Cloud engineers, the airline’s technical teams are expected to be able to solve specific business scenarios while gaining a foundation in AI with Google Cloud’s TensorFlow and Cloud Machine Learning Engine.
AirAsia will be able to enroll its technical teams in the same programme Google Cloud uses to train its engineers, allowing the airline to build on its own internal machine learning expertise.
The airline will also work closely with Google Cloud to deploy G Suite and Chrome Enterprise and transform its “way of work” and culture, creating an agile digital experience that will provide access to data and analysis when and where they are needed for faster, more informed decision-making.
source: TTG Asia
