Named after a celebrated aviatrix, Satair's quote-handling AI platform is revolutionising the way it conducts business – but you'll need to be fast to keep up with 'her'.
The anthropomorphism of aircraft is rarer than for ships, arguably the last remaining example of artificial grammatical gender in the English language.
Or, in simpler terms: ships are often referred to as 'she' (like they were in Latin), and aircraft only occasionally (so no, not because the Romans couldn't fly). Enola Gay, a good example, was named after the bomb commander's mother.
So it's no curveball to note that Satair chose to give its AI-driven quote-handling platform a female name – and it's not just any name.
"Lilly" is named after one of the most celebrated American aviatrixes of all time.
Named after first woman to design a heavier-than-air aircraft
Emma Lilian Todd (1865-1937) was a pioneer of early flight who became one of the first women in history to design an aircraft.
As a talented inventor who filed multiple patents during her career – including ones for a solar-powered cannon and various typewriter accessories – Lilian turned her attention to aeronautics in 1903, displaying the design of her first aircraft three years later at a show at Madison Square Garden.
This attracted the support of a patron who financed the construction of an aircraft in 1908. Some 11 metres in length, the wings of the biplane were held together with piano wire. It eventually took to the skies in 1910, albeit for more of a hop than a hover.
Meanwhile, Lilian founded a junior aero club for budding aviators and aviatrixes, lending her New York apartment to their sketches and models.
But then, seemingly in her element as respected aviatrix, inventor and mentor, she 'retired', taking a job to work for her patron as an assistant.
Nevertheless, history remembers her as the first woman to design a heavier-than-air aircraft, and her achievement continues to be commemorated as an inspiration to others in both children's and history books, animated film and now machine.
Aviatrix Emma Lilian Todd
How Lilly revolutionised a cumbersome and manual process
Lilian's namesake, Lilly, has become an indispensable part of Satair's operations.
Satair annually receives 450,000 emails from customers seeking aircraft parts and, until Lilly's launch following a successful pilot in 2019, answering them all was a huge burden for the 230 Satair employees who work in customer services.
Understandably, as much as Satair tried to quickly answer its customers, not everyone got a reply on the day they enquired – a regrettable situation, according to Michael Nicolai Folkmann Schjerbeck, Head of Digital Customer & Partner Experience at Satair:
“It was a highly cumbersome and manual process entailing major lead times for our customers.”
But all that changed following the introduction of Lilly.
Average response time: 1,440 to 2 mins
Before Lilly started 'working' for Satair, the average response time was 24 hours.
Since her introduction, the average response time has shrunk to just two minutes, as most enquiries are dealt with in seconds, regardless of the time of day.
The quotes have an accuracy rate of 98 percent.
In total, Lilly handles 58 percent of the quotes, as some still require manual handling.
This frees up staff to take on other tasks, such as keeping track of Lilly's performance and better engaging with customers who require other forms of assistance.
Lightning Lilly's learning all the time
Lilly is a Google Cloud-based, Vertex AI-driven quote-handling platform – a digital and automated entity that facilities digital communication.
Conceived in partnership with Atos, Lilly is able to assess huge amounts of data in seconds to fulfil customers’ quotation needs.
Machine learning and the use of Google Cloud ensures Lilly is constantly evolving and expanding its capacity, asserts Schjerbeck:
“Google Cloud is a critical part of our digital infrastructure. Instead of reinventing the wheel, we use its native components to build on top of, scale, and handle data in real time. While Vertex AI is an instrumental part of offering best-in-class customer service to deliver a high-value customer experience across all touch points.”
READ MORE: Data the missing link for Gen-AI in aviation supply chain
User-friendly real-time dashboard
The Satair Customer Resolution Services team can monitor Lilly’s performance through a real-time dashboard counting the daily number of sent emails and revealing the quality of the quote predictions.
Lilly is particularly alert to the kind of missing information that had previously caused delays to enquiries and orders.
So not only does Lilly have a rapid response time, but 'she' is quick to fulfil customer needs. By improving processes through data and machine learning, the system increases efficiency without requiring customers to change their behaviour.
Bespoke service for all types of enquiries
Previously, customers with an inventory of the parts they were seeking, already detailed on a file, would have to look for the parts individually – again a time-consuming process.
To summarise all of its benefits, Lilly
- optimises the Satair customer experience
- provides a high-performance, scalable, secure, serverless infrastructure
- saves both Satair and customer precious time
- uses innovative features to ensure smooth daily operations
- ensures fast automated responses to quotation email enquiries
- pools all parts quotes into one market
- integrates and reformats customer lists, regardless of file type
READ MORE: How to Streamline Your Aviation Supply Chain with less manpower
An integral part of Satair’s digital journey
Lilly has become an essential part of the team transforming the way Satair conducts its business. As the company continues to innovate in a traditionally complex industry, tools like Lilly play a key role in streamlining processes and improving customer experience. And Schjerbeck is in no doubt that Lilly has a bright future:
“We want to engage our customers with a fully automated and digitised customer experience that reinvents the way we work to future-proof our processes and solve problems quickly with digital solutions.”