Air Canada’s Tim Strauss outlines AI and Drone initiatives of the cargo carrier

Tim Strauss, VP Cargo for Air Canada, was the guest speaker at the JFK Air Cargo Association luncheon on October 31st at the Crowne Plaza. Mr. Strauss’ presentation focused on two initiatives underway at Air Canada in the cargo sector:

• Artificial Intelligence (AI), and how Air Canada is employing AI to improve cargo capacity utilization.
  
• Drone Technology implementation for air cargo
  

With regard to AI, Mr. Strauss described the value of AI analytics in four stages so as to provide the optimum balance between capacity availability and capacity utilization:

1. Descriptive: What has happened in the past?
   
2. Diagnostic: What factors caused it to happen?
   
3. Predictive: What is likely to happen in the future?
   
4. Prescriptive: What can be done to make the most desirable choices happen

Air Canada is using these analytics to predict how to get as close as possible to full cargo bookings on its various routes without bumping cargo and by taking into account cancellation rates by customers. According to Mr. Strauss, research has shown that only 8% of organizations manage to realize the full potential of AI business transformations. Even with having the data available, the biggest challenge to implementing prescriptive strategies is organizational culture; working with employees to accomplish what is needed. Nevertheless, Air Canada is starting to realize the value of AI to improve its cargo bookings.

On the subject of drone technology, Mr. Strauss announced that Air Canada has been designated the commercial arm for Drone Delivery Canada (DDC), with rights to 150,000 routes in Canada, and with the first revenue cargo flight scheduled in November within the city of Toronto. Air Canada has tested and can employ drones with up to 400 lbs of cargo capacity, with the pharma, bioscience, and time-critical manufacturing components having high potential in the early stages.