Virgin Atlantic Taps OpenAI for Telco-Grade AI Assistant

Virgin Atlantic has introduced an AI travel assistant powered by OpenAI, designed to work across voice, image and text. 

The service, called Concierge, now runs on the Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Atlantic Holidays websites, with plans to extend the feature to its mobile app in 2026.

Developed with digital design studio Tomoro, Concierge operates across the airline’s digital touchpoints. Customers use natural language to book holidays, manage loyalty accounts or ask support questions, all within the same interface.

Virgin Atlantic calls it a smarter and more intuitive way to interact, using telco infrastructure and connectivity as a foundation for multimodal experiences.

Siobhan Fitzpatrick, Chief Experience Officer at Virgin Atlantic, says: “Our new Concierge reimagines how we connect with our guests. It listens, understands and responds helping to plan holidays and flights with the same intuitive care you’d expect from our teams.” 

Telco infrastructure meets AI interaction

The Concierge uses OpenAI’s large language model to understand user inputs and responds via natural dialogue. 

Voice, image and text inputs enable multimodal interactions – a growing requirement as telco networks move further into 5G and edge processing. 

The assistant handles flight searches, holiday bookings, loyalty queries and general support. It adapts to preferences over time to deliver more relevant options.

Virgin Atlantic works with Tomoro to build in the brand’s service tone.

Sam Netherwood, Co-founder and Head of Design at Tomoro, says: “We’ve worked closely with Virgin Atlantic to capture what makes their service special: the warmth, the expertise, the personal touch their team brings to every interaction. 

“Using OpenAI’s technology and our expertise building intelligent customer service experiences, we’ve helped bring Virgin Atlantic’s exceptional hospitality to digital channels.”

The system handles basic queries autonomously but routes complex or sensitive issues to human agents. 

With many telco customer systems running across hybrid cloud environments, Virgin Atlantic’s integration shows how generative AI works within telco-dependent platforms without major infrastructure changes.

From internal trials to customer speed

Virgin Atlantic first tests AI across internal teams. The business now runs hundreds of custom models inside departments, showing how generative AI scales across telco-reliant operations. 

Finance, human resources and engineering teams adopt OpenAI tools to manage policy, automate reporting and accelerate development.

Oliver Byers, Chief Financial Officer at Virgin Atlantic, says: “Being a smaller airline compared to our global competitors means we need to find smart ways to offset scale disadvantages. Leading-edge technology gives us that edge,” he says.

Engineering teams use OpenAI’s Codex model to generate code faster, helping new features reach customers sooner. In aviation, where digital platforms influence conversions, that delivery speed matters.

“We’ve seen massive adoption of the technology... ultimately what that results in is us getting more code written at a faster pace in front of our customers to give a better experience,” says Oliver.

Virgin Atlantic monitors metrics such as engagement, satisfaction and revenue impact. That performance data feeds back into both customer experience and back-end optimisation – a hybrid model well suited to telco systems.

Scalable, multimodal and network-reliant

OpenAI’s Nicolai Skabo, EMEA Enterprise Leader, says Virgin Atlantic’s deployment shows how airlines can scale AI across both staff tools and customer channels.

Nicolai says: “We’re proud to help Virgin Atlantic bring the benefits of AI to every part of its business – from giving employees smarter tools to powering new customer experiences. With its new digital Concierge, Virgin Atlantic is integrating advanced intelligence into each stage of travel. 

“Travellers get personalised support by voice, image or text showing how leading brands like Virgin Atlantic can deliver intuitive, on-brand service at scale to elevate service and streamline operations.”

While voice and image inputs are live on the website, mobile support arrives in 2026. That next step depends on tight coordination between devices, networks and AI models – a role telcos are well placed to deliver.