Given the near 85% fail rate in corporate artificial intelligence projects, it was a pleasure to visit with Alaska Airlines, which launched a highly successful AI system that is helping flight dispatchers. I visited with Alaska to see what the "secret sauce" was that made its AI project a success. Here are some tips to help your company execute AI as well as Alaska Airlines has. Initially, the idea of overhauling flight operations control existed in concept only. "Since the idea was highly conceptual, we didn't want to oversell it to management," said Pasha Saleh, flight operations strategy and innovation director for Alaska Airlines. "Instead, we got Airspace Intelligence, our AI vendor, to visit our network centers so they could observe the problems and build that into their development process.

Alaska Airlines and Airspace Intelligence announced today the signing of a multi-year contract for the use of Flyways AI, an industry-changing platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to assist dispatchers in making flight operations more efficient and sustainable by optimizing routes and improving the predictability and flow of airline traffic. Alaska is the first airline worldwide to adopt the technology. The use of an AI-powered flight monitoring and routing platform that aids in critical decisions is a first in the U.S. air transportation industry. It allows the airline and its employees to plan the most efficient routes by giving dispatchers new tools to make informed decisions quickly. Using machine-learning models of the National Airspace System, Flyways predicts future scenarios and manages exceptions network-wide by processing millions of data inputs quickly and with even greater precision. The commitment to a continued partnership comes after an initial six-month trial program, during which Alaska's dispatchers used the new AI-powered flight prediction information to help them plan, monitor, and make recommendations for rerouting flights to avoid issues like congested airspace and bad weather.

Alaska Airlines and Airspace Intelligence announce a first-of-its-kind partnership to optimize air traffic flow with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. The first-ever use of artificial intelligence in flight operations control continues Alaska's legacy of innovation, enabling more efficient and sustainable flights. Alaska Airlines has been a leader in implementing flight deck automation. The first foray into cockpit modernization started in 1987 with heads up displays (HUD) to project flight data on the cockpit windows to aid in landing. In 2010, the airline adopted Required Navigation Performance (RNP) to aid in precision landings in Alaska during bad weather.

There are dozens of routes that Alaska Airlines Flight 1405 can take from Oklahoma City to Seattle, and dispatcher Brad Ward zeroed in on what he thought was the best one, taking into account weather, wind speeds, and other air traffic. But his new colleague at the Alaska Airlines operations center had other thoughts. A storm cell near Oklahoma City was likely to turn into a thunderstorm around the time Flight 1405 took off, and the airspace north of Amarillo would be closed for military exercises. Better to reroute, the young colleague said, suggesting an alternative that Ward admitted was safer and more efficient. The entire conversation lasted just seconds and passed without a word being spoken: a red box lit up on Ward's computer screen when the colleague, an artificial intelligence program he has affectionately nicknamed Algo, had an idea.