Rajeev: Certain. I believe lately none of those conversations may be full with out speaking about AI and gen AI. We began this early exploratory section early into the sport, particularly on this a part of the world. However for us, the hot button is approaching this primarily based on the client’s ache factors and enterprise wants after which we work backward to establish what sort of AI is finest appropriate or related to us. In Cathay, at present, we concentrate on three predominant forms of AI. One is after all conversational AI. Primarily, it’s a type of an inner and exterior chatbot. Our chatbot, we name it Vera, serves clients straight and may deal with about 50% of the inquiries efficiently. And nearly two weeks again, we upgraded the LLM with a brand new mannequin, the chatbot with a brand new mannequin, which is ready to be extra environment friendly and rather more responsive when it comes to the human work. In order that’s one a part of the AI that we closely invested on.
Second is RPA, or robotic course of automation, particularly what you are seeing is through the pandemic and post-Covid period, there may be restricted assets obtainable, particularly in Hong Kong and throughout our provide chain. So RPA or the robotic processes helps to automate mundane repetitive duties, which does not solely fill the useful resource hole, however it additionally straight enhances the worker expertise. And to this point in Cathay, we have now a few hundred bots in manufacturing serving numerous enterprise models, serving roughly 30,000 hours yearly of human exercise. So that is the second half.
The third one is round ML and it is the gen AI. So like our digital crew or the info science crew has developed about 70-plus ML fashions in Cathay that turned the group knowledge into insights or actionable gadgets. These fashions assist us to make a greater resolution. For instance, what meals to be loaded into the plane and particular routes, when it comes to what amount and how much product affords we promote to clients, and together with the fare loading and the pricing of our passenger in addition to a cargo bay area. There’s lots of exploration that’s being accomplished on this area as nicely. And a few examples I might relate is in the event you ever occur to come back to Hong Kong, subsequent time on the airport, you could possibly hear the general public announcement system and that’s additionally AI-powered lately. Previously, our employees used to manually make these bulletins and now it has been moved away and has been moved into AI-powered voice know-how in order that we might be constant in our announcement.
Megan: Oh, improbable. I will must pay attention for it subsequent time I am at Hong Kong airport. And you have talked about this matter a few instances within the dialog. Look, once we’re speaking about cloud modernization, cybersecurity generally is a roadblock to agility, I assume, if it isn’t managed successfully. So might you additionally inform us in just a little extra element how Cathay Pacific has built-in safety into its digital transformation journey, significantly with the adoption of improvement safety operations practices that you have talked about?
Rajeev: Yeah, that is an attention-grabbing one. I take care of cybersecurity in addition to the infrastructure companies. With each of those important features round my hand, I have to be aware of each elements, proper? Sure, it is an attention-grabbing one and it has modified over the time frame, and I totally perceive why cybersecurity practices must be inflexible as a result of there may be lots of compliance and it’s a extremely regulated operate, but when one thing goes mistaken, as a CISO we’re held accountable for these faults. I can perceive why the crew is so inflexible of their practices. And I additionally perceive from a enterprise perspective it might be perceived as a highway blocker to agility.
One of many key elements that we have now accomplished in Cathay is we have now been following DevOps for fairly quite a lot of years, and lately, I believe within the final two years, we began implementing DevSecOps into our STLC [software testing life cycle]. And what it basically means is slightly than the core cybersecurity crew being answerable for lots of the safety testing and people kinds of elements, we need to shift left a few of these capabilities into the builders in order that the individuals who develop the code now are held accountable for the testing and the standard of the output. They usually’re additionally enabled when it comes to the cybersecurity course of. Proper?
After all, once we began off this journey, there was an enormous resistance on the safety crew itself as a result of they do not actually belief the builders attempting to do the testing or the testing outputs. However over a time frame with the introduction of assorted instruments and automation that’s put in place, that is now getting right into a matured stage whereby it’s now enabling the upfront groups to handle all of the elements of safety, like menace modeling, code scanning, and the vulnerability testing. However on the finish, the safety groups can be nonetheless validating and act as a kind of a gatekeeper, however in a really mild and inbuilt processes. And this manner we will be sure that our cloud functions are safe by design and by default they’ll ship them quicker and extra reliably to our clients. And on this total course of, proper?
Previously, safety has been all the time perceived as an accountability of the cybersecurity crew. And by enabling the builders of the safety elements, now you will have a greater possession within the group in relation to cybersecurity and it’s constructing a greater cybersecurity tradition throughout the group. And that, to me, is a key as a result of from a safety facet, we all the time say that individuals are your first line of protection and infrequently they’re additionally the final line of protection. I am glad that by these processes we’re capable of enhance that maturity within the group.
