VINCI Airports – a Corporate Partner of the FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub – is testing a virtual assistant powered by agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI) at Lyon Airport. The 3D avatar is capable of providing passengers with information and answering their questions. It uses agentic AI technology developed by startup Jumbo Mana, with the virtual assistant delivering answers to passengers’ questions and using 3D animation to look like a real person.
This innovative solution has multiple benefits for passengers, including:
- Dynamic real-time information about flights and air traffic.
- Spatial information to help passengers find their way around the airport, using an interactive airport map.
- General information about airport services and shops, destinations you can travel to from Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport, and suggestions about what to do during your stay in the Lyon area.
The new service enhances the passenger experience by providing a 24/7 digital airport assistant that understands all languages and is able to answer passengers’ questions about every aspect of their journey in French and English (in its initial version). This innovative service supplements the work of airport staff and reinforces the other information sources already available – signs, interactive terminals, website and social media, mobile app, travel assistants and chatbot– guaranteeing a seamless, even simpler passenger journey.
“As a Centre of Excellence on customer experience for VINCI Airports, Aéroports de Lyon leverages innovation to drive growth and improve our passengers’ journey,” said Cédric Fechter, Chairman of the Board of Aéroports de Lyon. “Our new Artificial Intelligence-powered virtual assistant is a great addition to other facilities in place to welcome passengers and the assistance provided by our staff in the terminals: a perfect illustration of how people and technology can work together to provide our passengers with the top-quality service they expect.”
This smart 3D virtual assistant uses the specific agentic AI language model, the latest revolution in the field of Artificial Intelligence. As a result, the avatar is capable of understanding voice commands given by passengers, analysing them and delivering a precise, context-specific answer, both verbally and in writing. It draws on a host of information aggregated in a dynamic knowledge base provided by the airport, which guarantees the answers given are top-quality and on-topic. As well as providing it with sophisticated conversational abilities, agentic AI also equips the avatar with a built-in interactive map that helps passengers find their way around the airport easily and access real-time information about flights, boarding gates and other essential services. With 3D animation and the ability to speak, it delivers an interactive experience and creates a real feeling of closeness with passengers.
“Jumbo Mana is truly honoured to be able to work with Aéroports de Lyon and VINCI Airports,” said Christophe Renaudineau, CEO, Jumbo Mana. “We are proud to have created Lyon Airport’s first conversational AI assistant. This disruptive innovation leverages the very latest developments in agentic AI to make sure the avatar truly understands passengers’ needs, while automating flow management using a smart interactive map. This project embodies our vision of creating an AI solution people trust, so that businesses can then build relationships of trust with their own users.”
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