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Emirates Group partners with OpenAI to accelerate enterprise-wide AI transformation

The airline will deploy ChatGPT Enterprise and build an AI Centre of Excellence as it accelerates digital transformation across operations, customer experience and future air mobility

Andrea Benito
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Published: 25 Nov 2025 12:00

The Emirates Group has entered into a strategic collaboration with OpenAI to scale artificial intelligence (AI) across its global operations, marking a significant move that signals the accelerating role of AI in reshaping the future of aviation, digital air mobility and passenger experience.

Under the agreement, Emirates will deploy ChatGPT Enterprise across the organisation, supported by targeted AI literacy programmes, technical experimentation and strategic alignment at an executive level. The initiative aims to integrate AI capabilities into the airline’s commercial, operational and customer-facing functions.

Ali Serdar Yakut, executive vice-president for IT at Emirates Group, said the partnership will help the organisation tackle complex commercial and operational challenges while strengthening its competitive advantage.

“We see enormous potential for AI technology to support our business requirements, helping us tackle complex commercial challenges, strengthening our operations and enhancing the customer experience,” he said.

“Closely working with OpenAI will make our technology investments both strategic and scalable, enabling us to deliver enhanced value to our employees and customers, fundamentally changing how we innovate, deliver value and maintain our competitive edge in the industry.”

Emirates and OpenAI will introduce practical AI use cases across departments, develop an internal community of AI champions, and establish a dedicated AI Centre of Excellence to accelerate experimentation and adoption.

The focus areas include demand forecasting, predictive operations, engineering optimisation, crew management, customer service automation and real-time personalisation, all areas where emerging generative AI (GenAI) capabilities can shorten decision cycles and unlock operational resilience.

Aviation turns to AI as air mobility evolves

The partnership comes at a pivotal moment for the aviation sector. At this year’s Dubai Airshow, AI was a dominant theme, from next-generation air mobility concepts to digital twin-powered aircraft maintenance, autonomous air traffic management and data-driven sustainability strategies.

The global commercial aviation ecosystem is increasingly turning to GenAI to handle everything from dynamic scheduling and route optimisation to improved safety analytics and energy efficiency. Dubai is positioning itself as a hub for future air mobility, including flying taxis, advanced drone operations and AI-driven urban airspace management. Emirates’ move aligns with wider government ambitions to embed AI into every layer of transport and logistics.

“Emirates Group has laid out a bold vision for how AI can transform the future of aviation,” said Rod Solaimani, regional director for MENA and Central Asia at OpenAI. “With this collaboration, we’re proud to help them bring that vision to life, embedding intelligence across their operations, empowering teams with powerful new tools and reimagining the travel experience for millions of customers.”

Access to research and leadership engagement

The collaboration includes direct access to OpenAI’s latest research and early insights into technical breakthroughs, giving Emirates the ability to rapidly test and integrate new capabilities as they emerge.

Both organisations will also jointly host leadership sessions to educate senior stakeholders on the opportunities and risks of GenAI, while building advocacy for long-term AI programmes. These sessions will offer visibility into OpenAI’s roadmap and help Emirates shape its multi-year innovation strategy.

Technical teams from Emirates and OpenAI will work side by side on integration practices, rapid prototyping workflows and sandbox environments to safely explore use cases before deploying them at scale. The partnership also includes cooperation on government-led innovation accelerators in the UAE, supporting the country’s ambition to be a global leader in AI-enabled industries.

Emirates’ technology strategy has increasingly focused on scalable and practical innovation, from biometrics-enabled airport journeys to smart baggage systems, fuel optimisation analytics and immersive inflight digital services. The collaboration with OpenAI is set to extend this progress into the realm of enterprise-wide intelligence.

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