Retail

AI avatar concierge helping Boston airport travelers navigate flight journey

Amelia, a life-size, hyper-realistic AI avatar concierge, has been deployed by the Massachusetts Port Authority to enhance customer service assistance to passengers at Boston Logan International Airport.

Image: Proto Hologram

November 4, 2026 by Judy Mottl — Editor: RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com, Connect Media

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This year the AI hologram is front and center when it comes to the customer experience within airport environments.

In April, travelers arriving for the NFL Draft were welcomed by life-size holograms of Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra musicians performing around the clock at Pittsburgh International Airport. Three Pittsburgh Symphony musicians performed as holograms inside a nearly seven-foot-tall, 400-pound display in the Airside Center Core.

In June, football fans heading to see the USA play in the FIFA World Cup 2026 in California were greeted by two hologram ambassadors — two-time Olympic gold medalist Brandi Chastain (also a two-time FIFA World Cup champion) and San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie. The hologram installations were located post-security in Terminal 2 across from the Amex Lounge and in Terminal 3 near the E gates food court area of San Francisco International Airport.

Boston Logan deploys a hologram

The latest AI hologram experience, called Amelia, is at Boston Logan International Airport which offers direct access to more than 150 domestic and international destinations served by over 40 airlines.

Massport owns and operates Boston Logan, public terminals in the Port of Boston, Hanscom Field and Worcester Regional Airport.

Amelia is a concierge wayfinder located at every airport terminal and is focused on helping travelers traverse the airport and making the passenger experience.

The AI avatar uses natural conversation to offer travelers real-time directions as well as help when it comes to baggage claim locations and insight on restaurants, shops and lounges.

Boston is the largest airport to date that has installed an AI avatar. The pilot service is the work of the Massachusetts Port Authority (Massport), which partnered with Proto Hologram, which provides hologram technology and AI spatial computing, and Holomedia AI, which offers spatial computing, hologram communications and immersive AI-powered passenger engagement. The company's AI Concierge Wayfinder platform is deployed across major airports and transportation hubs throughout North America

The installation marks the first major use of Proto technology in the Boston area and the biggest airport installation Proto has been involved in.

All about Amelia

Amelia's hologram presence and natural conversational abilities provide natural human-scale interaction, instilling trust and increasing comprehension.

The avatar was created from an actual woman from the Boston area, not taken from some AI toolbox, according to Proto.

She is "always on" and engages passengers and provides step-by-step directions paired with live mapping and real-time updates from the TSA. Amelia has an intuitive touchscreen so that passengers can easily choose or type their needs in any language.

The experience is entirely self-contained with a touch screen and no external hardware.

Amelia can communicate in up to 40 languages and real-time TSA wait times are integrated with airport data so she's providing insight in real time. She offers immediate live agent connect directly with customer service staff when needed.

The goals for Amelia

For Boston Logan's operations Amelia augments airport staff during peak periods, fills service gaps, and frees staff to handle more complex customer service responsibilities.

Amelia's presence at Boston Logan reflects Massport's goal to enhance the customer experience, according to Samantha Decker, assistant director, media relations at Massport.

"At Massport, we are always looking for innovative ways to assist passengers. Amelia is another example of how we're leveraging new technology to make traveling through the airport easier and more convenient," Decker said in an email interview.

"From helping passengers find their gates and navigate the terminals to locating dining options and other amenities, Amelia provides passengers with another helpful resource throughout their travel journey. Our goal is to create a seamless, welcoming airport experience while complementing the work of our dedicated customer service team."

Deploying AI hologram technology

A successful AI hologram deployment is all about focusing on the problem an enterprise aims to solve, according to David Nussbaum, founder and chairman of Proto Hologram.

"At Proto, we're bringing AI into physical spaces, giving artificial intelligence a sense of presence in the real world. Organizations need to understand what their customers actually need, give their AI access to accurate, relevant information, and make the experience effortless to use," Nussbaum said in an email interview.

At Boston Logan there are 400 locations Amelia is helping travelers find and the goal is to make that 1,000 points of interest.

"Each Amelia also knows exactly where she's located in the airport, allowing her to provide precise, personalized directions, with real time estimates from the passenger's actual starting point. Real work went into compiling and syncing all this data and that's what makes it valuable to the user," said Nussbaum.

Tips for hologram success

Hologram technology strategies require some guardrails, according to Nussbaum.

"When AI is interacting with the public, it needs clearly defined boundaries around what it can and cannot say or do. Accuracy, safety, privacy, and brand integrity are critical. The goal is to make their AI assistant trustworthy, reliable, and genuinely helpful."

For Massport the focus was on determining how the technology could boost the traveler experience.

"Innovation should serve a purpose and for us, that means making travel easier, more accessible and less stressful for our passengers," said Decker. "It's important to recognize that technology is a tool to enhance, not replace, the in-person experience of customer service. We're excited about the possibilities this technology offers and look forward to seeing how it continues to evolve."

As Nussbaum noted any additional help for travelers is always good think given how hectic airport travel can be.

"Travel can be stressful —even in a world class airport like Logan. Beyond compiling and syncing all this complicated information we needed the experience to be as approachable and comforting as possible."

About Judy Mottl

Judy Mottl is the editor of RetailCustomerExperience.com and DigitalSignageToday.com at Connect Media. She is an award-winning editor, reporter and blogger who has worked for top media for nearly four decades, including AOL, InformationWeek and Internet News, as well as for leading technology providers including HP. She’s written everything from breaking news to in-depth industry trends and reported on technology long before the internet arrived, including the debut of the first smartphone. When she's not sharing insights on digital signage deployments and trends in retail customer experience she's on the beach or watching the latest live murder trial.

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