Qatar Airways is giving its digital cabin crew, Sama, a generative AI makeover to improve its customer service experience and ultimately drive sales.
Sama 2.0 is a more human-like artificially intelligent digital entity, complete with expressions and simulated breathing. This is a departure from her former game-like character appearance and signals a shift in Qatar Airways’ approach to passenger interaction.
In its next phase, Sama will be able to book travel flights and complete transactions on behalf of people, pivoting to agent AI—the industry’s next AI evolution, the company said.
Sama 2.0 is found on Qatar Airways’ metaverse experience, QVerse, where people can chat or talk to the AI, asking questions about on-ground and on-board services, such as cabin preferences, meal options or baggage allowance, and ultimately book flights.
“AI essentially gives us capabilities to enhance our QVerse space into a two-way engagement platform,” said Babar Rahman, VP marketing, Qatar Airways.
Brands are moving beyond the traditional, scripted chatbot experience with the explosion of gen AI, and customer experience is a clear use case. Kitchen appliance brand Lēvo is boosting sales by ingesting gen AI into its chatbot. 80% of customer service and support organizations are expected to apply gen AI in some form to improve agent productivity and customer experience by 2025, per Gartner.
“Qatar Airways’ deployment of Sama 2.0 highlights a crucial evolution in AI-powered customer experiences,” said Jason Snyder, CTO of IPG agency Momentum Worldwide. “Empathy is the next frontier in transformative customer experiences. While challenges exist, the potential to create profoundly personalized and emotionally resonant brand interactions through AI is undeniable.”
Sama 2.0 is powered by Synanim, UneeQ’s real-time, life-like animation technology. The brand said that Sama comes with her own backstory, including her childhood in Doha and training as a flight attendant for Qatar.
