CLEVELAND — Talking to customer service can be a tedious task. That’s why Ruihuang Yang is taking the lead in helping others save time and energy over the phone, by using artificial intelligence.
“So we created this project, XLab Airlines, to demonstrate our AI capabilities in transforming the customer service industry,” Yang said.
Yang is a graduate student at Case Western Reserve University’s Weatherhead School of Management, where students and staff are helping develop new technologies and tools. Through their work, Yang said, they’re hoping to introduce AI-based solutions to real-world problems. These inventions often reach fruition inside of the school's XLab, Yang said, where a team of students build protoypes for partnering businesses.
XLab Airlines is one of the school's more recent inventions, providing a customer service line for all flight-related needs.
“This entire phone call from the point when I hit call to I accomplished this entire task is less than two minutes,” he said. “So, definitely a transformative experience in terms of customer service for for the users.”
Sining Wang has been working with students like Yang in recent years, as an assistant professor at the Weatherhead School.
The school is pioneering transformations across industries, he said. But, while artificial intelligence is quickly evolving, it isn’t new.
“For instance, in economics, we are using AI techniques to do causal inference to identify different patterns, and when it comes to finance, we use AI to build machine learning models to do predictive analysis,” Wang said.
Students play a critical role in the university’s AI research and projects, Wang said.
“The objective is to see whether or not certain type of AI are more helpful than the others … and in this process, students are part of the learning process,” he said.
Andrew Medvedev, Dean of the Weatherhead School of Management, said their impact extends beyond campus grounds.
“We've seen phenomenal success rates for our corporate partners, and seeing how that application improves the functioning of the team,” Medvedev said. “Phenomenal results in customer service, retention, and of course, all that at a lower cost, which doesn't hurt.”
As AI continues to rise as one of the fastest-growing industries worldwide, Yang said, he’s grateful to be a part of it all.
“It's feel like I'm working at the at the frontier of technology and it feels…a very huge sense of accomplishment,” Yang said.
Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Ruihuang Yang's name. This has been corrected. (May 22, 2025)
