AirAsia deploys JIFFY.ai RPA to automate business processes, save costs

AirAsia on Thursday said that it has deployed the robotic process automation (RPA) capabilities of enterprise automation service provider JIFFY.ai to bolster its digital transformation journey.

As part of the partnership, which began in May, the budget airline has implemented JIFFY.ai’s artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled automation platform to bring intelligent automation, intelligent document processing and analytics together in a single package, a statement said.

“The JIFFY.ai AUTOMATE platform is expandable and extensible, and will give them the intelligent automation power they need to streamline and improve complex business processes while supporting innovation to help the business grow,” Babu Sivadasan, co-founder and CEO at JIFFY.ai, said.

The AirAsia Global Shared Services division expects to achieve significant cost savings and efficiency gains within 180 days of RPA adoption. The business process automation represents the latest disclosure in AirAsia Group’s digital transformation journey, which has been ongoing since 2016.

“RPA will allow our workforce to automate mundane and repetitive tasks, which will free up valuable time to focus on other tasks that require thinking and experience-based judgment. It will enable us to increase productivity, reduce errors and redeploy resources to higher-value functions. All these benefits will ultimately translate into sizable cost savings and top-line revenue growth,” Azli Mohamed, chief transformation officer at AirAsia, said.

In May 2020, the airline said it implemented end-to-end contactless procedures to facilitate essential travel, at a time when the industry came to a standstill due to the Covid-19 lockdowns across the globe.

The procedures, it said, included contactless payment kiosks, enhanced features on the AirAsia mobile app and contactless kiosks in all operating airports across Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Indonesia and Japan.

Hived off as a separate entity from its parent company Paanini in 2018 to create an integrated automation and app development platform for the fintech industry, JIFFY.ai was set up by a group of 20 co-founders.

The Palo Alto, California headquartered startup has development centres in Silicon Valley, Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru and Kochi. It last raised $18 million in Series A funding round led by Nexus Venture Partners.