VINCI Airports is testing a virtual assistant at Lyon Airport, an innovative GenAI-powered service to provide passengers with information and assistance

Lyon Airport, an Innovation Centre of Excellence on customer experience for VINCI Airports, is setting new standards by being the first European airport to try out a 3D avatar capable of providing passengers with information and answering their questions. Powered by agentic AI technology developed by the startup Jumbo Mana, the virtual assistant delivers answers to passengers’ questions and uses 3D animation to look like a real person.

This innovative solution has multiple benefits for passengers, including:

• dynamic real-time information about flights and air traffic,
• spatial information to help passengers find their way around the airport, using an interactive airport map,
• general information about airport services and shops, destinations you can travel to from Lyon-Saint Exupéry Airport, and suggestions about what to do during your stay in the Lyon area.

The new service enhances the passenger experience by providing a 24/7 digital airport assistant. Located in Place des Lumières for departures and in the baggage reclaim area for arrivals, the virtual assistant understands all languages and is able to answer passengers’ questions about every aspect of their journey in French and English (in its initial version).

This innovative service supplements the work of airport staff and reinforces the other information sources already available—signs, interactive terminals, website and social media, mobile app, travel assistants and chatbot—guaranteeing a seamless, even simpler passenger journey.

*Agentic AI: Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems made up of autonomous agents that are capable of adapting to their environment, making decisions and taking action to achieve specific goals.

According to Cédric Fechter, Chairman of the Board of Aéroports de Lyon: “As a Centre of Excellence on customer experience for VINCI Airports, Aéroports de Lyon leverages innovation to drive growth and improve our passengers’ journey. Our new artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistant is a great addition to other facilities in place to welcome passengers and the assistance provided by our staff in the terminals: a perfect illustration of how people and technology can work together to provide our passengers with the top-quality service they expect.” 

“Jumbo Mana is truly honoured to be able to work with Aéroports de Lyon and VINCI Airports. We are proud to have created Lyon Airport’s first conversational AI assistant. This disruptive innovation leverages the very latest developments in agentic AI to make sure the avatar truly understands passengers’ needs, while automating flow management using a smart interactive map. This project embodies our vision of creating an AI solution people trust, so that businesses can then build relationships of trust with their own users,” says Christophe Renaudineau, CEO, Jumbo Mana

How does the virtual assistant work?

This smart 3D virtual assistant uses the specific agentic AI language model, the latest revolution in the field of artificial intelligence. As a result, the avatar is capable of understanding voice commands given by passengers, analysing them and delivering a precise, context-specific answer, both verbally and in writing. It draws on a host of information aggregated in a dynamic knowledge base provided by the airport, which guarantees the answers given are top-quality and on-topic. As well as providing it with sophisticated conversational abilities, agentic AI also equips the avatar with a built-in interactive map that helps passengers find their way around the airport easily and access real-time information about flights, boarding gates and other essential services. With 3D animation and the ability to speak, it delivers an interactive experience and creates a real feeling of closeness with passengers.