Emirates rolls out ChatGPT Enterprise and develops AI check-in and baggage robots
Emirates Group agreed in November 2025 to deploy ChatGPT Enterprise across the company and set up an AI Centre of Excellence with OpenAI. Separately, it is building robots that recognise passengers by face, check them in and take their bags, with a launch planned for the first quarter of 2027. Neither programme has published results.
The operating picture
From the office to the check-in hall
Emirates Airbus A380-861 A6-EER MUC 2015 01. Photograph: Julian Herzog (Website) / CC BY 4.0 (cropped to fit). Illustrates the airline, not an AI deployment.
The OpenAI collaboration, announced on 21 November 2025, covers a rollout of ChatGPT Enterprise across the group with AI literacy programmes, an internal network of AI champions, early access to OpenAI research and sandbox environments for testing generative AI. Ali Serdar Yakut, executive vice president of IT, said the airline sees potential for AI in commercial challenges, operations and customer experience.
Emirates presented its robotics work at ForsaTEK 2026, its annual innovation event, along with drone inspection of engine components and automated measurement of cargo pallets, Gulf News reported.
Selected implementations
The work behind the evidence
01 / Reported · unverified
ChatGPT for the whole group
The operational problem
Office work across a large airline group involves a great deal of drafting and analysis, and no central team can build tools for every department.
What the evidence reports
Emirates said on 21 November 2025 that its collaboration with OpenAI would bring a deployment of ChatGPT Enterprise across the group, supported by tailored AI literacy programmes, and would include exploring practical use cases and establishing an AI Centre of Excellence. Technology teams from both companies will work on integrating OpenAI's models and set up sandbox environments for experimentation.
Operational significance
The agreement starts with staff tools and skills, and gives Emirates a route to build its own applications on OpenAI's models.
Evidence still needed
Emirates has not said how many staff have access, which use cases are live, or when the Centre of Excellence opened. No adoption figures appear in the sources reviewed.
A source can verify an announcement without verifying its projected outcome.
02 / Reported · unverified
Robots that check in passengers and take their bags
The operational problem
Check-in and bag drop are labour intensive at a hub the size of Dubai (DXB), and queues there shape a passenger's first impression of the airline.
What the evidence reports
Gulf News reported on 22 September 2026 that Emirates is developing a new generation of airport robots in its own robotics laboratory, building on Sara, a prototype that completes check-in with facial recognition and passport scanning. Keenan Hamza, vice president of innovation and new technologies, said the baggage robot will recognise a passenger by face as they approach, take the suitcase, weigh it and attach the bag tag. The robots are expected to be unveiled and launched in the first quarter of 2027.
Operational significance
The robots combine face recognition, document checks and baggage handling in one unit, which would take several manual steps out of the departure process.
Evidence still needed
The robots are in development. Emirates has not said where they will be used first, how many there will be, or how passengers who do not want facial recognition will be served.
A source can verify an announcement without verifying its projected outcome.
The wider register
Other tracked activity
Other records are shown separately, including non-AI technology and programmes at different stages of deployment. A register entry does not establish a measured AI benefit.
No other publicly listed records.
Editorial assessment
Emirates is working on AI at both ends of the business: tools for its office staff, and robots for the check-in hall.
The 2027 robot launch is the next point at which there will be something to measure, starting with where they operate and how many passengers use them.
Live data from the Aerostack register. Status reflects published evidence only. See Our approach for how records are graded.
Aerostack register · 2 tracked deployments
Aerostack tracks AI deployments across airports and airlines, with the published evidence behind each record. Photography is real aviation imagery. Record thumbnails may show the named airport or airline; other photographs do not.
