Technology and business leaders from Delta Air Lines, Highgate, and Boardwalk REIT recently joined a Kore.ai panel to share how AI is reshaping service at scale—across the airport gate, the hotel front desk, and the residential leasing office.
Despite different sectors, their stories converged around a common truth: AI for Service is about human enablement, operational precision, and building experiences guests remember.
AI that Empowers, Not Replaces
Whether managing 30,000 global agents, onboarding a new sales team, or fielding real-time maintenance requests, these organizations are facing the same workforce reality: fewer people, more pressure, and higher expectations.
“People are worried AI will take their jobs. But it’s here to give time back,” said Bhavnesh Jaraim, CIO at Boardwalk. “Time to create real connections with residents. Time to prioritize. Time to solve.”
At Delta, that means simplifying the 60+ pre-boarding tasks an agent handles at the gate—without sacrificing safety or compliance. At Highgate, it means offloading process management so sales staff can focus on what they do best: connecting with guests. And at Boardwalk, it means eliminating the everyday cracks—the forgotten calendar sync, the late showing notification, the missed SMS—that erode customer trust.
These are no longer theoretical use cases. They’re being implemented now. And they’re delivering value without displacing people.
Human-Centered Change Starts on the Front Lines
AI transformations often fail not due to technology, but because of poor change management.
“Change doesn’t happen top-down. It happens organically when employees feel included,” said Delta’s Amin Lalani, who oversees technology operations. “We involve 1,000 agents every month in testing and design. They don’t just adopt AI—they advocate for it.”
All three leaders emphasized the need to evangelize from within—identifying early adopters, creating feedback loops, and building trust before rollout.
Automate the Process, Amplify the Experience
Across the panel, the conversation shifted from simple automation to orchestration—using AI not just to respond, but to predict, contextualize, and act with precision.
“The next leap is contextualization,” said Lalani. “AI that knows who you are, what your journey has been, and what matters in this moment.”
At Delta, that means surfacing personalized policies for elite members mid-conversation. At Highgate, it means tailoring cancellation policies based on guest history. At Boardwalk, it means proactively dispatching maintenance or troubleshooting issues before they require a truck roll.
And all of it depends on data discipline—a curated, tested, and clean foundation that drives responsible outcomes at scale.
Responsible AI Is Intentional AI
Trust isn’t a feature, but a foundation. Each panelist spoke about the importance of transparency, ethical design, and human oversight—especially in customer-facing moments.
“It starts with curated data and rigorous testing,” said Boardwalk’s Jaraim. “We want automation—but never at the cost of trust.”
Kore.ai’s multi-LLM platform gives customers full control over how AI is trained, tested, and deployed—ensuring the outputs match your business values, not just statistical predictions.
What’s Next: AI as Concierge, Co-Pilot, and Confidence Builder
In a lightning round, each leader was asked: What AI innovation are you most excited about in the next 12–18 months?
The answers varied—concierge experiences, predictive service flows, dynamic scheduling—but the theme was clear: AI should remove uncertainty, not add to it.
“AI can’t just automate what you have,” said Lalani. “It has to reimagine how it should work.”
Final Thoughts
Service in travel and hospitality has always been high stakes. Expectations don’t drop when teams shrink. They rise. And with the right AI platform, that’s an opportunity.
