After years of close cooperation, the Boston Consulting Group and KLM Royal Dutch Airlines have agreed to what they describe as a pioneering artificial intelligence partnership that could "revolutionise global airline operations". It is the first time in the Dutch airline's history that it has collaborated with a leading management consultancy to launch an entirely new service. The jointly-developed artificial intelligence (AI) system will digitise KLM's entire commercial aviation process and leverage advanced machine learning technology to streamline operations "in an unprecedented manner". With these and other state-of-the-art analytic and organisational tools, the suite of integrated solutions will be able to minimise daily disruptions caused by human error and unforeseen events. Combining AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics with a joint force of KLM Operational staff and data scientists, engineers and developers from BCG Gamma (the data science consulting arm of BCG), the technology can help optimise airline processes, from front-office to back-office.

Artificial intelligence is a hot topic these days. In this industry, investment grew more than 3-fold since 2013, and new services and applications for it are appearing every week. These two facts alone provide plenty of reason to believe that AI is here to stay and will influence businesses quite a bit. Now, news coming from Amstelveen (Netherlands) and San Francisco (USA) report that the KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is testing AI in customer service through social media, taking the next step in social servicing. To do so, KLM is using DigitalGenius' AI, integrating it in its customer relationship management tool.