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IBM Travel and Hospitality Saudi Arabia

Riyadh Air

Customer Service Automation · IT Operations Automation

Riyadh Air wanted to avoid the legacy-system bottlenecks that slow most airlines and instead build a cloud-native operating model that could coordinate guest journeys, operations and service decisions in real time from day one.

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59 workstreams
more than 60 partners
more than 75 systems
over 1,800 integrations

Reported impact

Business outcome

Riyadh Air established a modular, cloud-born operating model that supports real-time personalization, faster service resolution and coordinated enterprise operations without inheriting traditional airline architecture debt.

  • Customer Experience
  • Productivity Improvement
  • Scalability

Solution

Riyadh Air partnered with IBM to build an AI-native airline architecture rather than layering AI onto legacy systems. IBM Consulting coordinated 59 workstreams across more than 60 partners and used IBM watsonx Orchestrate as the control plane for specialized AI agents spanning commercial, operational and service domains. IBM also implemented a hybrid cloud integration platform on Microsoft Azure Red Hat OpenShift powered by IBM Cloud Pak for Integration, giving the airline a modular fabric for moving contextual data across more than 75 systems and over 1,800 integrations. On top of that foundation, AI agents support contact-center resolution, crew coordination and digital concierge experiences, while the airline’s website, mobile app and service tools run on an AI-native customer layer that adapts offers and decisions in real time.

Data flow

Operational, guest and service data moves continuously across more than 75 connected systems through a hybrid integration fabric, where watsonx Orchestrate coordinates AI agents that convert those signals into personalized offers, contact-center actions, crew support and operational decisions.

Solution architecture

4 components · 3 layers
  1. Compute
    • Microsoft Azure Red Hat OpenShift Hosts the hybrid cloud integration platform that underpins Riyadh Air’s modular operating model.
  2. Orchestration
    • IBM watsonx Orchestrate Coordinates specialized AI agents and routes work across commercial, operational and service domains.
    • IBM Cloud Pak for Integration Provides the integration backbone that connects airline systems and lets contextual data move across journeys and workflows.
  3. Uncategorized
    • IBM Consulting Served as the orchestrator and integrator across partners, systems and delivery workstreams.

Architecture clues

  • AI-native and cloud-native operating model
  • Data fabric coordinates passenger, crew, engineering and agent workflows
  • Hybrid integration platform runs on Microsoft Azure Red Hat OpenShift

Evidence from the source

Contextual data now moves continuously across more than 75 systems through over 1,800 integrations, bringing every domain into a unified flow of information.
IBM Consulting coordinated 59 workstreams across more than 60 partners—including Adobe, Apple, FLYR, Microsoft and Oracle—aligning strategy, IT and delivery into a single operating model.
IBM Consulting enabled this orchestration by implementing a hybrid cloud integration platform built on Microsoft Azure Red Hat OpenShift and powered by IBM Cloud Pak for Integration.
Transparency Evidence & methodology 70/100 reference value · 82% confidence · 1 source

Review how this reference was scored and trace each normalized claim back to its documented source.

01

Scoring methodology

How scores are calculated

Customer Reference Value measures usefulness as a customer reference. Evidence Confidence measures the quality and traceability of available evidence, not independent verification.

Customer reference value70/100
  • Problem clarity20/20
    Measures whether the customer's operational problem is specific enough to compare.
  • Implementation depth25/25
    Rewards named components, data flow, integrations, and architecture detail.
  • Outcome specificity20/20
    Measures whether the reported benefit is concrete rather than a generic claim.
  • Quantified impact0/25
    0 metrics describe measurable impact.
  • Deployment scale5/10
    Rewards evidence of a live or scaled deployment and meaningful integration scope.
Evidence confidence82%
  • Source authority20/25
    The main evidence is an official vendor-published customer story.
  • Claim traceability21/25
    10 of 12 key fields link to a named source.
  • Direct evidence15/20
    3 direct source quotes retained.
  • Date provenance10/10
    The publication date comes from the source page or publisher.
  • Source transparency8/10
    1 source reference document publisher, URL, authority, retrieval, and supported fields.
  • Implementation specificity8/10
    Rewards source-backed components, data flow, quantified impact, and a specific outcome.
02

Traceability

Sources & provenance

Field coverage shows which facts each source supports. Dates are shown only when documented by the source.

  1. IBM

    Riyadh Air customer story

    First-party
    https://www.ibm.com/case-studies/riyadh-air
    Source type
    Vendor-published customer story
    Published
    May 7, 2026
    Supports
    • Customer
    • Business problem
    • Solution
    • Products
    • Solution components
    • Data flow
    • Integrations
    • technical area
    • use case category
    • Business outcome
    • outcome category
    • Metrics
    • Architecture
    • evidence quotes
    • Publication date

Date evidence

Not separately sourced Industry, Region, Company size. Treat these normalized attributes as lower-confidence until a dedicated source is added.

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