New research from Accenture finds that the majority of airlines are falling behind on AI adoption.
Only 12% of airlines are currently tying AI to revenue growth, Accenture say, with too many treating the tech as an ‘add-on’ rather than embedding it into their systems. Moreover, 58% of airlines are layering AI on top of outdated legacy systems, further inhibiting effective adoption.
The contrast with parallel industries is stark. All the consumer goods and retail leaders Accenture surveyed said generative AI was central to their strategy. Only 48% of airline executives said the same. Of these AI integrations, airlines are mostly restricted to small deployments: 14% of airlines reported running six to ten AI pilots at once, compared to more than half (52%) of consumer goods and retail companies.
Emily Weiss, Travel industry Lead at Accenture, commented:
While the airline industry has made progress in applying AI to customer-facing areas such as marketing, e-commerce, and service, the far greater opportunity lies in transforming the core of the business: from operations and crew management to pricing, revenue growth, and retail platforms.
At present, too many airlines are still experimenting with small pilots or layering AI on top of legacy systems, which constrains scale and impact.
Accenture also found airlines are lagging on agentic AI: 61% said they had no live projects in this field, while in consumer goods and retail 98% of executives are running one to five pilots, and 59% are running six to ten proof-of-concepts. Weiss adds:
To capture the full value, airlines must re-architect their systems with AI at the core, scale initiatives across functions, and tie them directly to revenue outcomes.
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