Explorez tous les épisodes du podcast SoarAI
| Titre | Date | Durée | |
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| Why Turkish Airlines is betting on an in-house LLM and an AI teammate | 06 Oct 2026 | 00:44:30 | |
Turkish Airlines writes most of its own software and is building an offer-order retailing platform in-house, and plans to sell it to other airlines. The executive in charge of product development explains where AI fits in, and what the airline has learnt from putting its flights into ChatGPT and Claude.
Yılmaz Goralı runs airline retailing product development at Turkish Technology, the technology arm of the Turkish Airlines group. In this episode of the SoarAI podcast, he explains why a group that already builds its own passenger service system, booking engine, payment and loyalty systems decided at the end of 2023 to build modern airline retailing as well. He sees three uses for AI: building products and code, working alongside staff as a teammate, and serving passengers. One revenue manager covering Istanbul–Frankfurt cannot scan the next twelve months alone, so the system should flag what needs action. A family heading home from Lapland should hear about a likely blizzard a day early, along with an offer of an extra night. He also covers why he treats an AI chat as a sales channel with its own rules, and why airlines that keep selling static fares to AI agents could end up as white-label carriers.
"I'm not going to sugarcoat that we did everything and we figured it out." "We envision a future where airlines are not using AI as a tool, but a teammate." "Otherwise, the best thing we could do is to replicate the current systems and processes, and this is not what we are here for."
Yılmaz Goralı is Vice President, Airline Retailing – Product Development at Turkish Technology, the technology company of the Turkish Airlines group. He has almost three decades of experience in travel technology and works on the group's offer-order retailing platform, which Turkish Technology plans to market to other airlines. [LinkedIn]
Shashank Nigam is CEO of SimpliFlying, a leading aviation strategy firm with more than 18 years of experience working with 120+ organisations. SoarAI is our new practice covering how artificial intelligence is being built and deployed across the sector. Peter Bellew is Founder of Dooks Capital, former CEO of Malaysia Airlines and former Chief Operating Officer of Ryanair and Riyadh Air. Dooks Capital backs early-stage technical founders building AI for airline, airport, and ground operations intelligence.
SoarAI is the world's first podcast on artificial intelligence in aviation. SimpliFlying brings you in-depth and unfiltered conversations with aviation leaders on how the industry is evaluating, implementing and scaling AI in the real world. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. New episodes of SoarAI drop every fortnight. Links
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| What Singapore Airlines learnt from 400 AI use cases | 22 Sep 2026 | 00:45:16 | |
Singapore Airlines has explored about 400 AI use cases and has around 100 in production. Its technology chief explains the framework that decides what ships, why staff build their own tools, and why the CEO pushes harder than IT does. George Wang runs technology at Singapore Airlines, including its AI and digital transformation strategy. In our second Soar.AI podcast episode, he explains how an airline with a fast-follower reputation on technology became, in April 2025, the first major carrier to formalise a collaboration with OpenAI. Multiple things led up to this moment: a digital innovation blueprint from 2018, an AI blueprint that went to the board in July 2023, a three-way test of impact, risk and ease of implementation, and a rule that exploration is not a phase in itself but a route to production. As a result of these efforts, customer satisfaction with the airline's chatbot almost doubled after the move to generative AI. The flight recommender saves customers around 30 minutes on a search for the cheapest fare or the fewest miles across flexible dates. Jarvis, the airline's internal AI agent, lets business staff build and deploy their own tools without involving IT, under access controls IT still sets. He also explains where AI has fallen short, why the breakthroughs so far are in language rather than physical intelligence, and why he expects the technology itself to become a commodity.
"Access to all this technology itself is not a competitive advantage." "Training is the starting point, but not the end solution." "Technology should be invisible."
George Wang is Senior Vice President Information Technology at Singapore Airlines, responsible for the airline's IT and digital transformation strategy, including its work in AI and emerging technologies. He took the airline's AI blueprint to its board in July 2023 and is on record for its collaborations with OpenAI and Salesforce. [LinkedIn]
Shashank Nigam is CEO of SimpliFlying, a leading aviation strategy firm with more than 18 years of experience working with 120+ organisations. Soar.AI is our new practice covering how artificial intelligence is being built and deployed across the sector. Peter Bellew is Founder of Dooks Capital, former CEO of Malaysia Airlines and former Chief Operating Officer of Ryanair and Riyadh Air. Dooks Capital backs early-stage technical founders building AI for airline, airport, and ground operations intelligence.
Soar.AI is the world's first podcast on artificial intelligence in aviation. SimpliFlying brings you in-depth and unfiltered conversations with aviation leaders on how the industry is evaluating, implementing and scaling AI in the real world. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. New episodes of Soar.AI drop every fortnight.
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| Why Virgin Atlantic went first on ChatGPT and last on NDC | 08 Sep 2026 | 00:36:01 | |
Virgin Atlantic was the first airline to put an app inside ChatGPT. Its chief customer officer tells us what it cost, what it earned and why letting passengers dodge fare rules was part of the deal. Episode summary Juha Jaervinen runs everything at Virgin Atlantic that a passenger can see. Brand, marketing, loyalty, communications, the clubhouses and the trip itself all report to him. This episode puts figures on the airline's AI Concierge, built with OpenAI and Tomoro. Five months in, it had handled half a million conversations, sold around £1m of flights and cut handovers from chat to the contact centre by 30%. He is equally frank about the failures, including a Concierge that taught customers how to dodge fare rules. He explains why Virgin Atlantic chose to lead on customer-facing AI and to trail on NDC and offer-order; how it launched South Korea without a photoshoot; why reducing cabin waste with AI is his next target, and why it's about fuel, not food; and where he would put his own money — a tool that prices seats and cargo together.
"AI is not there to take your jobs away. It actually makes your role as a human more meaningful." "When you ask our most frequent flyers why they fly with us, they say: because of your people." About the guest Juha Jaervinen is Chief Customer Officer at Virgin Atlantic, responsible for the end-to-end customer experience, brand and marketing, loyalty, communications and the airline's clubhouses. He previously held senior commercial roles at Finnair, where his remit covered passenger and cargo revenue and the network. [LinkedIn]
Shashank Nigam is CEO of SimpliFlying, a leading aviation strategy firm with more than 18 years of experience working with 120+ organisations. Soar.AI is our new practice covering how artificial intelligence is being built and deployed across the sector. Peter Bellew is Founder of Dooks Capital, former CEO of Malaysia Airlines and former Chief Operating Officer of Ryanair and Riyadh Air. Dooks Capital backs early-stage technical founders building AI for airline, airport, and ground operations intelligence.
Soar.AI is the world's first podcast on artificial intelligence in aviation. SimpliFlying brings you in-depth and unfiltered conversations with aviation leaders on how the industry is evaluating, implementing and scaling AI in the real world. Listen now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or YouTube. New episodes of Soar.AI drop every fortnight.
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