Emerging technology is helping air cargo innovation take flight. A team of two Unisys associates was recently recognized for integrating AI and digital cargo booking systems to streamline communication efficiency between airlines and freight forwarders.
The Unisys team won the IATA ONE Record 2023 Hackathon Developer Prize after competing in the around-the-clock event sponsored by Qatar Airways Cargo and held Nov. 24-26 in Doha, Qatar.
During the Hackathon, teams were tasked with building solutions to enhance cargo products using the ONE Record Data Sharing standard by multimodal means. The Unisys team — comprised of Solution Manager Sabari Ramnath and Senior Engineer Amith KK — experimented with integrating generative AI capabilities with air cargo booking systems. The goal was to automate the real conversations and personalize interactions that happen over the phone between airlines and freight forwarders, making the booking process simpler and more efficient.
“When we saw the IATA One Record Hackathon, we saw a great fit between large language models to ease booking compliance with the power of retrieval augmented generation since LLMs are excellent at sorting through large haystacks of data and finding facts that match up to questions,” KK and Ramnath wrote in their project submission.
This prototype could help solve a pain point in the air cargo industry — eliminating the time-consuming back-and-forth nature of communication between airlines and freight forwarders. Currently, digital booking platforms help facilitate this communication, but when freight forwarders have specific needs, both parties prefer to book shipments manually.
Infusing intelligence into conversations with conversational AI could bring improved efficiency and effectiveness to daily operations, ensuring that the future of air cargo communication is intelligent and tailored to meet the needs of all stakeholders involved. For example, Unisys Cargo Portal Services™ provides seamless cargo booking experiences by embracing transformative technologies and enabling freight forwarders to communicate with airlines precisely as they desire.
To learn more about how Unisys can help you more seamlessly connect with airlines and freight forwarders, visit us online or contact us today.
