✈️ LATAM’s AI Journey Is a Masterclass in Airline Transformation Done Right

May 2025 | AWS Travel & Hospitality Summit - Iberia, Mallorca

A couple of weeks ago at the AWS Travel & Hospitality Summit in Mallorca, Mauricio Ramos, Head of Strategic Governance & Service Transformation at LATAM Airlines, shared a rare kind of talk in the airline industry, one that cut through the noise and got to the operational heart of transformation.

It wasn’t a product pitch or a vendor showcase. It was a refreshingly candid look at what it takes for a major airline to modernize a core customer experience. In this case, the contact center: Using generative AI, intelligent routing, and internal alignment.

What stood out most wasn’t the tools, but the mindset. Mauricio and his team didn’t succeed because they built everything internally or because they used the “right” stack. They succeeded because they created the conditions for transformation to thrive: a culture of experimentation, a tolerance for failure, and the discipline to move fast without overcomplicating.

As the founder of SnapIQ, a startup helping airlines automate post-flight claims handling, I see this pattern often. It’s not about whether an airline builds or buys. It’s about whether the internal team understands what transformation truly requires,  and creates the space for it to happen.

📉 First, the uncomfortable truth: 80% of customers still call

LATAM is no small airline.85 million passengers. 40,000 employees. Cargo, lounges, 100+ destinations. Soon flying to every continent.

And yet:

“80% of our customers still end up calling us because they can’t solve their problem online.”

Nobody wakes up wanting to speak to a contact center, but most still have to. And that’s the gap LATAM set out to close, using tech not as a buzzword, but as a lever.

🧪 Start with a painful use case, not a shiny one

When LATAM partnered with AWS (despite being a GCP-heavy company), they went all-in on a high-friction, high-volume use case: voice support.

This wasn’t just another chatbot project. It was a GenAI-powered assistant, trained on 300+ knowledge base articles, rolled out in just one month as a proof of concept in Peru.

Why Peru?

“Because they speak better Spanish than we do in Chile.”

Real talk. Real context. Real execution. And most importantly, real linguistic self-awareness.

Results?

• 5% containment in month one
• 85% response accuracy (higher than human agents)
• 5x faster handling times
• 52% drop in call transfers
• Zero impact on CSAT

This wasn’t a product launch. It was an operational shift.

🔁 Simplicity scales, if your data is ready

Mauricio stressed this multiple times: data quality is non-negotiable.

“We now recognize 90% of callers and know why they’re calling, before they speak to an agent.”

That level of recognition allows for intelligent routing, transactional self-service, and, critically, human handoff only when needed.

LATAM didn’t rip and replace. They stayed on Genesys and selectively integrated AWS services like Lex, Lambda, etc.

That’s the future of enterprise tech: composability over reinvention.

💡 Culture eats cloud strategy for breakfast

LATAM didn’t pick AWS because of infra. They picked them because of mindset.

“We saw a cultural fit. They had contact centers, operational problems, they understood what we were solving.”

As a startup founder, this resonated deeply.

In our own journey building SnapIQ, we’ve seen firsthand how alignment on culture beats alignment on tools. Clients don’t need a platform. They need outcomes. Preferably yesterday.

🛫 Final Takeaways for Airline Innovators (including Startups)

• Start small, but start with pain: LATAM didn’t roll out GenAI to impress investors. They picked a problem agents hated, customers hated more, and solved it.
• Data is the bedrock: Without clean and connected customer data, AI is just noise.
• Fail publicly, learn loudly: Their first month only saw 5% containment. They made it part of the process.
• Don’t wait for perfect: 35% containment is not “done.” It’s mid-journey. And they’re already expanding to WhatsApp, chat, and beyond.

🛫 Final Thoughts: It’s Not Build vs. Buy, It’s Culture First

One of Mauricio’s most powerful lines was:

“You’re going to fail. The point is to fail fast, fix fast, and move.”

That ethos, of velocity over perfection, is a refreshing one in the industry and is what separates teams who transform from those who stall.

LATAM’s journey shows that transformation is not about centralizing control or picking the right partner. It’s about aligning people around a shared goal, removing friction, and creating a safe environment to test, learn, and scale.

For airlines working with startups like SnapIQ, or building internally, the takeaway is the same:

The real innovation happens when the internal team knows how to lead, and is brave enough to iterate in public.

That’s the work. And LATAM is showing the industry how it’s done.