The future of airline customer experience is quietly taking shape in Asia‑Pacific (APAC). Travelers here don’t just want fast support, they expect it—across apps, channels, and languages.

For most global brands, AI still means one or two proof‑of‑concepts. But in the APAC travel sector, the conversation is already advancing: mobile‑first customers, rising support volumes, and the pressure to get it right every time.

Cebu Pacific is proving what’s possible by rebuilding how its customer service operates from the inside out: new workflows, new roles, and an AI agent that now acts as the first point of contact for millions of customers.

Why the APAC travel sector is primed for AI customer experience transformation

To understand why Cebu Pacific is so far ahead, you have to understand the environment they’re operating in. In APAC, the conditions aren’t just ripe for AI—they're demanding it. Consider the landscape:

• Explosive travel growth: APAC is set to deliver 9% year-on-year growth in airline traffic in 2025, contributing 52% of global industry expansion, more than any other region.
• Digital-first economies: Mobile technologies and services generated $950 billion in economic value in 2024, about 5.6% of APAC’s total GDP.
• Channel complexity: Travelers here expect seamless support across mobile apps, web, and voice, often switching between them in a single journey.
• Multilingual demand: Airlines routinely serve customers in multiple languages, making scale and consistency nearly impossible with human teams alone.

How Cebu scaled smarter, not bigger

But Cebu’s AI transformation wasn’t just about answering more tickets. It was about rethinking how service gets delivered and building the structure to make AI successful long-term.

With ada, they implemented a new model for customer support: one built around automation, ownership, and continuous improvement. It wasn’t about simply adding more agents. It was about equipping the ones they had with the right systems, the right roles, and the right operating rhythm to unlock new levels of efficiency and satisfaction.

Here’s what that looked like in practice.

AI as the first point of contact

Before AI can scale, it has to show up. Cebu made sure their AI agent, Charlie, does exactly that. Instead of routing customers through clunky menus or making them wait in queues, Charlie is positioned as the first point of contact across the channels customers use most. Here’s how Charlie is able to step in with speed, context, and confidence:

• Live knowledge, not scripts: Responses are grounded in a real-time, centralized knowledge base—no hardcoded flows or manual updates.
• Conversational by design: Replies sound natural, feel personal, and adapt to the context of each interaction.
• Seamless escalation: When human support is needed, the full conversation is passed along, ensuring customers never have to repeat themselves.

High-impact support, not just fast replies

But the real test of any support system isn’t how it handles the easy stuff. It’s how it performs when everything goes sideways.

For Cebu, that meant designing Charlie not just to deflect tickets, but to step in when timing, tone, and resolution speed are critical. These are the moments that shape how customers remember their journey, and whether they’ll fly again.

Here’s how the AI agent supports travelers when timing matters most:

• Real-time prioritization: Charlie collaborates with Cebu’s Salesforce routing to escalate time-sensitive issues—like disrupted itineraries or urgent rebookings—within seconds.
• Multilingual, omnichannel reach: Whether customers start on the mobile app, Messenger, or Cebu’s website, Charlie offers consistent support across languages like English and Tagalog, meeting customers where they are.
• Faster, cleaner handoffs: If human help is needed, agents are looped in with full conversation history and traveler context, so they can resolve issues faster.

A new rhythm of continuous improvement

Cebu didn’t treat AI like a one-time set-up. They built the systems to support it, govern it, and grow it over time. That meant embedding the AI agent into their daily workflows and holding it to the same standards as any high-performing team member.

Rather than relying on ad hoc updates or occasional audits, they established a cadence of improvement so the AI agent could keep pace with evolving customer needs and business priorities.

Here’s how it works:

• Daily performance reviews: Customer Care teams hold stand-ups every day to review escalations, analyze intents, and fine-tune how the AI agent handles edge cases.
• Clear ownership: A lean group within the Customer Care organization owns Charlie’s performance end-to-end, from reviewing conversations to managing updates in Ada.
• Feedback loops that scale: Insights from Charlie’s conversations are shared across Cebu’s CX, digital, and product teams, ensuring the AI agent evolves in sync with the company’s broader service strategy.

The outcomes: Measurable gains, lasting impact

Together, these changes didn’t just improve how Cebu delivered an exceptional AI customer experience. They raised the bar for what their service team could achieve.

• 34% increase in automated resolution rate, allowing the AI agent to resolve more inquiries without human involvement.
• Over 50% improvement in CSAT, showing that automation didn’t just speed things up, it made the experience better.
• Less than 1-minute wait times for high-priority cases, ensuring that when urgency matters, customers aren’t left waiting.

In moving beyond simple AI adoption, Cebu is building something most travel brands are still chasing: an AI customer experience model that delivers real outcomes , in real time, without compromising the experience.

These results don’t just reflect service improvements. They point to what’s possible when AI is embedded in the core of the business . At Cebu, the future of AI customer experience isn’t on the horizon. It’s already in the air.