Richard masters, vice-president of data and artificial intelligence (ai) at virgin atlantic, is an expert in enterprise data, but his career began somehere differentant- spaceBefore Moving Into Analytics, Masters Completed a PHD in Astrophysics at the University of Oxford, Working on Two Major Projects.
“One was building an instrument in the very large telescope in the atacama desert in chile, which is weighing galaxies, and the other one was looking at dark matter in galaxies using data from the habbble Telescope, “He says, reflected on his academic experiences and time as an astroophysicist.
An outsider looking in might assume there's little relationship between high-level Science and Creating Customer-Focused Services for Major Companies. However, masters say his work observing the grandeur of the cosmos provided the perfect preparation for dealing with the minutia of enterprise information at virgin.
“You have a lot of noisy data that come in from that telescopes,” he says. “You spend most of your time removing noise so you can look at the galaxies and the stars. Once you've removed that noise, you're left with a signal that you're going to do somesis on to get your insight.”
It's an approach that echoes through to his present role. Masters Says His Longstanding Focus on Fine Details Has Becometer an obsession as a Data Leader: “Can I Simplife and Remove as much noise as possible from Anything We're Doing?”
Leading data initiatives
After Leaving Accademia, Masters Applied His Experience in a Range of Industries, Including as a Data Analysis Consultant Looking at Cyber Intelligence and Graph Networks at detaments. He then worked as a data science manager with Consultant eye Before his first three-yar stint at virgin between 2018 and 2021, where he rose to head of data science and engineering.
Masters left the airline to return to eye, where he was given to build products for compliance and behavioral analytics as an assistant director. After two-sand-a-half years honing his craft at eye, he returned to virgin atlantic in November 2023.
“I want to build things, and I want to work with people who undertand and trust me to build those things.
Richard Masters, Virgin Atlantic
“I came back trust of the conversations with the executive team. Chatbot ', “He Says.
“It was more like, 'we know how this technology should be used to make some of the delivery pipelines quicker and the quality assurance better, but we also want to Consider the fourth elements and make auaur date Right '. Practices. “
The draw of the virgin brand was also a big factor. “I want to build things, and I want to work with people who undertand and trust me to build those things,” he says. “What LED me back to virgin is that, like at eye, they've got the right platforms and mindsets with the teams. But the opportunity to open the end-to-end process here was fantastic.”
Looking back on his career journey, masters say focusing on Fine details have to be allowed “Clarity of thought is essential,” he says, summarising the characteristics that define a successful data leader in the age of ai.
“You need to distil carething that's going on. Even at the strategic level, there's noise and opinions, nomenture and obfuscation. Simplife Things as much as possible. That means asking yourself, 'Do I undress what I'm Talking About?'
“The way I can do that is to provide clearer explanations. That simplification is also important when you talk to your team, so you can translate and say, 'If we can boost our net promoter score, for example, we can show how we can show how we can show you using data to improvie papers Experiences on the plane '. “
Managing new implementations
Masters Says His Responsibilites Cover All Aspects of Data Use Across the Organization, from Analytical Data Engineering And maintenance through to the operation control center and customer and commercial applications. The other critical element of his role is leading ai developments and asking key questions about implementations.
“So, how are we using Ai?” He says. What platforms should we use and who should we partner with? Question comes down to our use of data and augmentation – that human loop of assurance Around data lineage. “
Masters Says the significance of Strong Ai Practices Across Business Processes Continues to Increase, Particularly for Governance and Ethics.
“AI has become an extension of our data protection process. We ensure that focus is critical to our work,” he says.
“Even before recent developments in Generative Ai [GenAI]Bias in Machine Learning has Always Been a Consideration when you're Building or Using Models. You must make people aware of the potential for bias and help them undersrstand that, when they use these tools, they generate more data. Our people then have responsible for managing that data. “
Masters say some of his big achievements during the past 18 months at virgin have been cented on data-enabled decision-making support for key business areas. He says insight is used to boost operational processes, hone customer services and development new knowledge management capabilitys.
“Our ability to assure the data and models are correct has been a big achievement for us,” he says. “I've got the team into a mindset of asking, 'is it right?', And building capabilities. Approach. “
Developing Ai Capabilites
One area of significant progress is data foundationsWhen masters returned to virgin in late 2023, the airline's executive team was eager to exploit ai.
Helped implement the Databricks Platform DURING his first spell with the business. After rejoining the firm, masters explred how the technology could provide the foundations for generative ai applications that optimise services and quicken decision-making processes.
Virgin is now using databricks, particularly the Technology Specialist's Unity Catalog, to Bring Disparete Data Data Sources Tooeces Tooece to the Creator and Create a Tentraralized Location for the Information that Powers The Firmation AI-enabled services. The airline is using genai, including databricks' interface genie, for a range of initiatives.
One example is summarization and categorization. The Health and Safety Team is Using A to Identtify Priority Incidents Rather Than Training Through a long list. This Approach is being applied as a model for sifting and prioritising issues in other area of the business, including consultomer care messages via email.
The latest application of the approach is for knowledge management. Virgin's staff use different systems, such as generals for the call center, dynamics for customer care, and apps for the crew that traditionalty data in separate stocks. Using databricks, data is stored in a single location. Employees then Run language models to search and summarise information.
“You can maintain that one dataset as political and then make sure everything from singing from the same hymn sheet when it comes to our different systems,” Says masters. “So, that's where genai can help you manage data as well.”
He says the key lesson from exploration into genai is that a solution in one area of the business can be reused somehere else: “What we're doing is buzzing a bunch of capability, so as thangs come us, Something with our app when it comes to genai, we can draw on these caps as we need them later on. “
Delivering Seamless Experiences
Masters recognies that the endPoint for data-enabled travel during the next few years is more personalization and higher-quality, seamless experiences. However, Reaching That Point means Answering Some Challenging Questions.
“How much do you want to know about ai as a customer?” He says. “The Answer is, you don't, you just want your experience to be better. So, Customers Want Us to Know More about them with the right Context – To Deal with Deal With Things Quickly in the Event of Somenting Provide better information along with their journey. “
We want to move to a point where you should need to need to check in [for your flight]We should know enough about you that we just need to ensure you turn up on the day of your flight. Everything else is handled through identity and the system
Richard Masters, Virgin Atlantic
Masters wants to use ai, digital experiences and data to airline's professionals. Virgin's staff should be removed Across the broader industry, he notes the shift to ai-enabled automation.
“We want to move to a point where you should need to need to check in [for your flight]”He says.” We should know enough about you that we just need to ensure you turn up on the day of your flight. Everything else is handled through identity and the system. That's where the industry is moving. And actually, ai can help us in the transition to that state, versus building big solutions that will become obsolete or prohibit us from moving quickly. “
Masters Says Reaching That Stage Will Require Industry Alignment on Framework, Terminologies and Tools, Particularly when it Comes to Integrations with Ostgraments of the Passenger Journey, CONSENGER JOURNEY Transportation and Destination Hotels. However, he expects program to be rapid as the promise of emerging technology is realized.
“You'll See More Alignment Across the Industry during the Next Few Years,” He Says. “At Virgin Atlantic, that Progress is Going to Be Around Where we can use data to let our teams unleash more of what makes our airline special.”
