Digital Iris

Digital Iris was an on-screen “digital human” concierge that answered travelers’ questions at Dallas Fort Worth International Airport. DFW’s Innovation team developed the concierge with IBM Watson and Soul Machines; a first version stood near gate A-34 in Terminal A and gave voice-based answers until the first phase of the test ended on June 25, 2021.¹ DFW said it was the first airport to combine IBM Watson’s AI with Soul Machines’ technology in a digital concierge, and that it would use the test results to judge the concierge’s potential.¹

The second phase, named Digital Iris, went into information kiosks in Terminal B in June 2022, according to an October 2022 release from Soul Machines that called it a pilot program.² Soul Machines created her likeness and animation and the emotion detection and response; IBM’s Watson Assistant understood the questions and supplied the answers, with speech-to-text, text-to-speech and links to data such as flight information and weather. Each kiosk had a directional microphone, a speaker and a camera that detected an approaching traveler, and Iris answered questions about flights and gates, restaurants, maps, airport support and services.²

The release said Iris had already handled “thousands of conversations”, that she was designed to augment airport support staff and to help less frequent travelers who are less comfortable with online resources, and that DFW planned to expand her across the airport.² MetaRoles found no later statement from DFW on whether Iris still runs, and receivers were appointed to Soul Machines on February 5, 2026.³ The case is graded as a pilot that ran in 2021 and 2022 in event concierge and guide robots, and is also covered in AI and robot receptionists and building concierge robots and AI.