IATA advances AI initiatives to support air cargo operations | News
The International Air Transport Association (IATA) is advancing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in air freight with three initiatives to improve operational efficiency, strengthen safety and compliance, and accelerate innovation in the global air freight value chain:
Making publications more efficient: IATA is launching an AI Subject Matter Expert (AI SME), a mobile and web-based application that helps operational teams quickly find information in IATA cargo and safety publications by asking questions in plain language. The tool provides accurate answers within seconds. This supports faster operational decision making, strengthens compliance and improves efficiency in time-critical environments.
The AI SME will initially be available for the IATA Dangerous Goods Regulations (DGR) and the IATA Cargo Handling Manual (ICHM) and will be gradually rolled out across IATA’s range of reference publications.
Facilitating collaboration: IATA is launching the Air Cargo AI Excellence Hub, bringing together airlines, ground handlers, freight forwarders, technology providers and regulators to support the orderly integration of AI into air cargo. The Hub will enable collaboration on best practices in areas such as governance and compliance, experience sharing and standards development and implementation.
Improving interline air freight: IATA and its strategic partners are exploring the potential of AI to achieve efficiency in interline air freight. The parties will work together with the aim of developing a use case that will allow airlines using different IT systems to collaborate on bookings, disruptions and cancellations in real time by using AI agents to achieve system interoperability between users.
This initiative is part of the Data & Technology Proof of Concept (PoC) area of the Strategic Partnerships Program.
“The opportunity for AI to accelerate the digital transformation of air cargo is enormous. Together, these initiatives will help maximize AI’s potential with industry adoption that is consistent, interoperable and aligned with global aviation standards. Importantly, we will learn from these initiatives to identify additional areas where standards, technology innovation and co-development can enable safer, smarter and more efficient operations,” said Brendan Sullivan, IATA’s Global Head of Cargo.
