Southwest Airlines

How they deploy

Deployment model

Southwest Airlines runs AI from a central Technology department led by Executive Vice President and CIO Lauren Woods. Vice presidents of technology pair with each part of the business (customer and commercial, air operations and reservations, technical and ground operations, people and finance), alongside shared groups for data and architecture, infrastructure and services, cybersecurity, and intelligence platforms, the enterprise AI group led by Justin Bundick. Business leaders own customer-facing uses: Sabrina Callahan for digital and marketing, including the ChatGPT plugin, and Kevin McDorman for customer care. Southwest Airlines also formed a Global Innovation Centre in Hyderabad, India in Nov 2025 and opened it in May 2026 to move some critical business functions from outside vendors to its own employees.

Model providers

Southwest Airlines has not said which large language models power its customer chat, marketing copy tests or internal tools. The AI suppliers Southwest names are AWS, whose Kiro agentic coding service more than 2,700 developers used in Jun 2026 and whose Amazon Quick Southwest is adopting, and OpenAI, whose ChatGPT hosts the Southwest flight shopping plugin launched on Oct 6, 2026. Salesforce says Southwest Airlines has run its Agentforce assistant in Help Center chat since Nov 2025. Analytics India Magazine reported in May 2026 that Southwest counts AWS, Salesforce, OpenAI and Anthropic in its AI ecosystem; Southwest has announced no agreement with Anthropic. In Mar 2023 Southwest Airlines said its developers were building a self-service machine learning platform on Amazon SageMaker so data scientists could build, train and deploy models for any use case.

Data and infrastructure

Southwest Airlines described its technology estate in Jun 2026 as a largely on-premises environment and set 2028 as the target for a fully cloud-based environment on AWS. AWS has been Southwest's preferred cloud since Mar 2023, when Southwest ran a new pricing and flight shopping data system on AWS Lambda and Amazon S3 and planned a modern data architecture on Amazon Redshift; Marty Garza's newsroom bio says crew systems have also moved to AWS. Bob Jordan credited the technology team in Dec 2025 with moving Southwest to a modern cloud and data infrastructure, and the 2025 Form 10-K shows third-party software maintenance expense up $64 million in 2025 on expanded cloud-based services. Southwest Airlines runs customer and employee service on Salesforce Service Cloud, and Salesforce says Agentforce answers from approved knowledge content and Service Cloud data in Salesforce's cloud. The Southwest plugin in ChatGPT runs inside OpenAI's service, which Southwest says it does not operate or control, and bookings are completed on Southwest.com.

Leadership

AI, data and platform leaders

AI org map

Central Technology department under the CIO, with an enterprise AI group and technology leads paired with each business area

Southwest Airlines places AI inside Technology, led by Lauren Woods, Executive Vice President and CIO since Dec 2025 and one of six executive officers in the Feb 2026 Form 10-K. Justin Bundick, Vice President for Intelligence Platforms, leads enterprise AI, including machine learning, data science, generative AI and agentic AI. Customer-facing AI channels sit with the business: digital and marketing under Sabrina Callahan and customer care under Kevin McDorman, both within Tony Roach's customer and brand remit, which has reported directly to Bob Jordan since a reorganization announced in late May 2026.

Southwest Airlines' AI work sits mainly in its Technology department under Lauren Woods: an enterprise AI organization built by Justin Bundick, put at more than 125 people in his Southwest newsroom bio and more than 250 in his Conference Board bio, a data and architecture group under Sean Lynch, infrastructure under Tom Merritt, technology leads for each business area, and a Hyderabad Global Innovation Centre under Krishna Kallepalli that plans to grow past 1,000 people. Southwest Airlines has not published a total count of data scientists or AI engineers, or how many of its more than 2,700 Kiro users are employees or contractors.

Use cases

Southwest Airlines has not published a count of AI use cases; the named ones are Salesforce's Agentforce in customer chat since Nov 2025, generative AI marketing copy tests, the Kiro coding agent for more than 2,700 developers and flight shopping inside ChatGPT, with Amazon Quick and wider AI agents announced in Jun 2026. Southwest Airlines has reported no business return for any of them and no firm-level return from AI; the only savings figure, a projection for Agentforce, comes from a Salesforce customer story.

Adoption

Southwest Airlines has built AI capacity in layers: AI in operations and commercial systems for more than a decade, according to Lauren Woods (Jul 2026); an AWS cloud and data foundation from Mar 2023, with a Redshift data architecture and a self-service SageMaker platform planned for data scientists; an AI organization that Justin Bundick grew from a small team to more than 125 or more than 250 people, depending on the bio; AI coding tools, with more than 2,700 developers on Kiro by Jun 2026; and customer-facing AI in Agentforce chat (Nov 2025) and ChatGPT (Oct 2026). Southwest Airlines has not disclosed how many of its 73,092 employees use AI tools, although its AI Literacy program aims to enable every employee, at all skill levels, to use them.

By the numbers

Economics & controls

Recent signals

1. Oct 22, 2026

   Bob Jordan highlighted Southwest Airlines as the first U.S. airline to offer flight shopping through ChatGPT, and Tony Roach said usage numbers were still small and the plugin is a way to learn how AI agents may change distribution.

   Q3 2026 earnings call transcript

2. Oct 6, 2026

   Southwest Airlines launched a flight shopping plugin in ChatGPT, the first by a U.S. airline, calling it the first step in a phased AI booking approach with OpenAI and AWS.

   Southwest press release

3. Sep 8, 2026

   Salesforce published a customer story saying Southwest Airlines' Agentforce chat has handled more than 2 million interactions since Nov 2025, resolving 45% of eligible inquiries without a person, with $6 million in projected annual savings.

   Salesforce customer story

4. Sep 2026

   Lauren Woods told the FTE Global conference in Dallas that Southwest Airlines is exploring natural-language tools for digital service and that AI could support reliability and on-time performance.

   Future Travel Experience

5. Jul 22, 2026

   Lauren Woods said Southwest Airlines has used AI in operations and commercial systems for more than a decade and that AI coding tools have accelerated the modernization of Southwest.com.

   ISMG interview

6. Jun 17, 2026

   Southwest Airlines named AWS its preferred cloud provider for a move to a fully cloud-based, AI- and agent-enabled architecture by 2028, said more than 2,700 developers use Kiro, and said it is adopting Amazon Quick.

   Southwest press release

7. May 20, 2026

   Southwest Airlines opened its first Global Innovation Centre outside the U.S. in Hyderabad, planned to grow past 1,000 people, and Lauren Woods said Southwest wants to be AI first.

   Analytics India Magazine

8. Apr 14, 2026

   Southwest Airlines announced Sabrina Callahan as its first Chief Digital and Marketing Officer, bringing marketing and digital platforms under one leader.

   Southwest press release

9. Mar 27, 2026

   Southwest Airlines' proxy statement said the Audit Committee oversees cybersecurity, technology and AI-related risks.

   2026 proxy statement

10. Feb 5, 2026

    Southwest Airlines' 2025 Form 10-K disclosed an internal AI governance team, generative AI copy testing in marketing, AI-based support for service replies and a risk factor on expanding AI and machine learning.

    2025 Form 10-K

11. Dec 2, 2025

    Southwest Airlines promoted Lauren Woods to Executive Vice President and CIO, and Bob Jordan credited her team with moving to a modern cloud and data infrastructure.

    Southwest newsroom

12. Nov 2025

    Southwest Airlines formed Southwest Airlines India Private Limited, a Global Innovation Center in Hyderabad, to move some critical business functions from its international vendor network to its own employees.

    2025 Form 10-K

Quick answers

How does Southwest Airlines deploy AI?

Southwest Airlines deploys AI from its central Technology department under CIO Lauren Woods, where Justin Bundick leads machine learning, generative AI and agentic AI. Southwest is moving from a largely on-premises environment to an AI- and agent-enabled architecture on AWS by 2028, has more than 2,700 developers using AWS's Kiro, has run Salesforce's Agentforce in customer chat since Nov 2025, and in Oct 2026 put flight shopping inside ChatGPT. Southwest has reported no financial return from AI.

What does Southwest Airlines use AI for?

Southwest Airlines has not published a count of AI use cases; the named ones are Salesforce's Agentforce in customer chat since Nov 2025, generative AI marketing copy tests, the Kiro coding agent for more than 2,700 developers and flight shopping inside ChatGPT, with Amazon Quick and wider AI agents announced in Jun 2026. Southwest Airlines has reported no business return for any of them and no firm-level return from AI; the only savings figure, a projection for Agentforce, comes from a Salesforce customer story.

Who leads AI at Southwest Airlines?

AI at Southwest Airlines is led by Lauren Woods (Executive Vice President and Chief Information Officer); Justin Bundick (Vice President, Intelligence Platforms); Sean Lynch (Vice President Technology, Data & Architecture). Ownership of AI on the org chart: Lauren Woods, EVP & CIO; enterprise AI led by VP Justin Bundick.

What AI platform does Southwest Airlines use?

Southwest Airlines builds AI on Amazon Web Services, its preferred cloud since Mar 2023, and plans to move from a largely on-premises environment to an AI- and agent-enabled architecture on AWS by 2028 (Jun 2026).

Which AI models does Southwest Airlines use?

Southwest Airlines has not named the models behind its AI tools; it uses AWS's Kiro coding agent and Salesforce's Agentforce, is adopting Amazon Quick, and offers flight shopping inside OpenAI's ChatGPT (Oct 2026).

How many Southwest employees use AI?

More than 2,700 Southwest Airlines developers use AWS's Kiro (Jun 2026), and an AI Literacy program aims to equip every employee to use AI tools; Southwest has not said how many of its 73,092 employees use AI.

How far has AI spread at Southwest Airlines?

Southwest Airlines sits at Piloting: sanctioned AI tools are live for selected groups, among them more than 2,700 developers on AWS's Kiro and customers using a Salesforce Agentforce assistant in Help Center chat since Nov 2025, a central AI organization delivers solutions, and an AI Acceptable Use Policy and governance team are in place. Southwest Airlines falls short of Scaling because it has disclosed no company-wide AI platform or assistant for its 73,092 employees, no count of production use cases and no AI results of its own, and its systems remain largely on premises until a planned move to AWS by 2028.

Open questions

• Which large language models power Southwest Airlines' customer chat, marketing copy tests and internal AI tools, are any hosted on AWS services such as Amazon Bedrock, and does Southwest use Anthropic's models, as Analytics India Magazine reported in May 2026?
• Does Southwest Airlines give employees a company-wide AI assistant, and how many of its 73,092 employees use AI tools each week?
• How large is Southwest Airlines' AI organization (Justin Bundick's newsroom bio says more than 125 people, his Conference Board bio more than 250), and who now leads the AI and Data Transformation organization created in Dec 2023?
• How many AI use cases does Southwest Airlines run in production, and which operational ones (crew, turns, maintenance, network operations) does its AI organization support?
• Has Agentforce delivered the $6 million in annual savings Salesforce projects, what have AI tools done to calls per passenger and handle times against the Sep 2024 goals, and how much did generative AI copy testing raise sales per marketing effort?
• What has Kiro delivered in developer output or modernization cost, and how many of the more than 2,700 users are employees rather than contractors?
• What does Southwest Airlines spend on technology and on AI today, given that the last published technology figure is about $1.3 billion for 2023?
• What became of the self-service SageMaker machine learning platform and the AWS Innovation Lab announced in Mar 2023?
• What share of Southwest Airlines' systems still runs on premises, and where do its AI models run until the planned move to AWS in 2028?
• Will the ChatGPT plugin move to booking inside ChatGPT, and what share of shopping does it drive?
• What AI and software work will the Hyderabad Global Innovation Centre take on as it grows toward 1,000 people?
• Will Southwest Airlines set AI targets at its Capital Markets Day on Mar 2, 2027?

Sources