How Spirit Airlines scaled smart self-service with AI

When travel plans go wrong, the contact centre feels it first. For Spirit Airlines, the spike in cancellations, changes, and refund requests brought an unexpected opportunity: use AI and data to rethink how guests solve their own problems faster.

In this session, Vanessa Hardy-Bowen, Director of Guest Care & Contact Center at Spirit Airlines, will spotlight how the airline giant built a proof-driven AI strategy rooted in self-service. We will discuss how they turned low-hanging fruit like bag changes and flight credits into high-impact wins, using pilots to test both technology and vendors, while bringing execs, legal, and cybersecurity along for the ride.

Learn how they balanced in-house ambition with the speed of external partners, built business cases with measurable ROI, and laid the groundwork for future innovation, delivering cost savings and guest satisfaction at scale.

Attendees will learn:

• How to use proof-of-concept pilots to prove ROI, test partnerships, and unlock executive buy-in
• Which self-service use cases are ripest for AI, and how to avoid operational pitfalls
• How Spirit connected CX data, team insights, and automation to reduce contact volume and boost CSAT