Heathrow’s AI Agent Hallie Cuts Customer Calls by 60% in First Year

Heathrow Airport has successfully deployed its AI assistant, Hallie, resulting in a dramatic shift in how traveler inquiries are managed. Since its launch in March 2025, Hallie has cut phone inquiries by 60%, enabling the airport to streamline customer service operations as passenger numbers continue to rise.

The Genesis of Hallie

Hallie was developed to enhance customer service in response to a projected 85 million travelers passing through Heathrow in 2025. Peter Burns, the airport's director of digital, e-commerce, and marketing, highlighted the urgent need for a technological solution as capacity expands. Since 2009, Heathrow has partnered with Salesforce, and this collaboration has evolved significantly.

In 2023, Heathrow began implementing Salesforce’s generative and agentic AI products, initially targeting internal processes to boost customer service capabilities. This groundwork set the stage for Hallie, which operates on WhatsApp and answers a broad range of traveler questions autonomously.

The Technology Behind Hallie

The deployment of Hallie was built on a solid data management foundation established through years of Salesforce integration. By July 2021, Heathrow had uploaded its customer and marketing data to Salesforce’s real-time data platform, allowing customer service representatives to access live passenger data. This integration was essential for effectively training the AI, ensuring accurate responses to inquiries.

Burns noted that initial tests using AI to draft responses and summarize cases were key in refining Hallie's abilities. By late 2023, the introduction of Salesforce's Agentforce enabled automated assistance in the airport's customer contact center, significantly easing the manual workload on human agents.

Achievements and Future Directions

Before Hallie's introduction, around 70% of customer inquiries were handled via phone. That figure has since dropped to just 10%, demonstrating the AI agent's effectiveness in managing customer interactions. Hallie can provide information on flight details, airport amenities, and wait times for security checks.

As the AI technology develops, Heathrow plans to expand Hallie's reach beyond WhatsApp to its website and mobile applications later this year. There are also plans to deploy Hallie at kiosks throughout the airport, further improving accessibility for travelers.

However, Hallie does have limitations. Burns explained that the AI only accesses data from Heathrow’s internal systems and website, which limits its ability to answer more personalized questions, such as baggage retrieval locations. The focus remains on delivering accurate information, as relying on external data could lead to inconsistencies.

Looking ahead, Heathrow aims to enhance Hallie’s functionalities, ensuring it evolves with the airport's operational demands and customer expectations. The ongoing collaboration with Salesforce plays a key role in managing the complexities of AI integration, with regular meetings and assessments to identify areas for improvement.

The airport's journey with generative AI offers valuable insights for others in the industry. As Gartner Research’s Vice President Bern Elliot noted, customer contact centers can effectively incubate AI technologies, providing measurable returns on investment through improved efficiency and service quality. "You don't have to connect very many dots to get from what you deployed to what is the measurable improvement," Elliot remarked, underscoring the clear benefits of AI in enhancing customer service workflows.

Heathrow’s experience with Hallie highlights a growing trend in the aviation sector as airports and airlines increasingly adopt AI solutions to manage the complexities of customer interactions in a busy environment.