Air France-KLM has partnered with Accenture and Google Cloud to build a ‘generative AI factory’ to scale AI across operations using cloud infrastructure. It follows a parallel arrangement in the banking sector with NatWest Group and AWS. Accenture has also announced a deal to buy Missouri-based tech consultancy Maryville Consulting Group to drive its digital-change capabilities with enterprises.
In sum – what to know:
Cloud migration – to identify AI use cases and scale AI usage across Air France-KLM operations.
Aircraft maintenance – early AI success, already, in the Air France-KLM, plus in customer service.
Digital change – for faster innovation; Accenture has expanded its US tech transformation business besides.
French-Dutch multinational airline company Air France-KLM has appointed Accenture and Google Cloud as part of a “multi-year” project to build a ‘generative AI (gen AI) factory’ as a “cloud-based framework” to identify AI use cases and scale AI usage across the group. It will be based on Google’s cloud infrastructure. Accenture will lead the consultancy and co-creation work to develop, test, and manage a tailored catalogue of pre-evaluated AI use cases – in the broadest sense. The focus is also on machine learning models and agentic AI systems.
Professional services outfit Accenture – which has just announced a parallel AI deal with with UK banking group NatWest and AWS (plus OpenAI; a different enterprise group in a different vertical with a different cloud provider) – has been working with Air France-KLM since March, at least, to migrate the airline’s existing data and applications to the cloud – moving away from its three proprietary data centers. The logic has been to drive “more effective adoption of generative AI solutions”, with a focus on passenger transport, cargo services, and aircraft maintenance.
It worked with the airline to define a “common operating model with a governance process”, which has allowed Accenture to “co-lead the whole initiative”, it said, and to establish a “cloud migration factory that uses predefined processes and reusable templates, enabling the simultaneous migration and transformation of Air France-KLM’s existing applications in the cloud”. It has already helped to “deploy” 350 applications with a “high success rate”, it said. Google Cloud has since been appointed to host Air France-KLM’s operations.
Accenture said it has deployed a “private gen AI assistant” and also developed retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) use cases to blend language generation with internal Air France-KLM document search. This has been put to work to improve response quality for tasks like diagnosing and repairing aircraft damage. The work is now scaling across the organisation. They claim “tangible results” in ground operations, engineering and maintenance, and customer service, and faster “experimentation to enterprise’readiness” development cycles (“by over 35 percent”).
A statement said: “[Air France-KLM has] built a gen-AI projects factory … that supports agentic AI… [and] empowers Air France-KLM to identify high-impact AI use cases, execute them at scale using shared tools and methods… to design, test, and operationalize applications across operations… [We] established a structured process that helps employees turn real-world challenges into practical generative AI solutions. It starts with identifying a problem, then moves quickly through design, prototyping, testing, and finally scaling successful ideas across the business.”
Julie Pozzi, head of data and AI at Air France-KLM, said: “Leveraging AI is more than technical innovation—it drives a fundamental business transformation. We aim to leverage generative AI to reinvent the operational backbone of the airline industry. This collaboration will empower us to anticipate and respond to the evolving travel landscape, delivering a truly personalized and transformative experience for every passenger and every operation.”
Sabine Bechelani, managing director for travel at Accenture, said: “This collaboration demonstrates how investing in a robust cloud-powered digital core strengthens organizational resilience and agility. By simplifying complex processes, it positions Air France-KLM to drive competitiveness in an environment of rapid digital acceleration. By leveraging gen AI, we are not only simplifying the journey for customers but also unlocking significant business value. It’s a powerful example of how technology can drive both operational excellence and strategic differentiation.”
Isabelle Fraine, managing director of Google Cloud in France, said: “With this collaboration, Air France-KLM and Accenture demonstrate their capacity to imagine and redesign the future of the travel industry with generative AI. We are thrilled to be part of this journey and to bring the best of our cloud and AI technology and expertise to accelerate this business transformation, enhance the group’s operations and foster the creation of new experiences for travelers.”
Meanwhile, Accenture has announced a deal to buy US-based tech consultancy Maryville Consulting Group, with a staff of 100. Headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, it will become a part of Accenture in North America. Accenture cited its “expertise in tech strategy and digital operations”, and called it a “strategic step” to expand [its] own digital change capabilities. Maryville Consulting Group said: “Our clients will benefit from Accenture’s global platform and deep capabilities, while still receiving the hands-on, outcome-driven service that has always defined our firm.”
It has partnerships with IBM-owned Apptio and Servicenow, notably. The fee for the deal has not been disclosed. The deal is subject to customary closing conditions.
