Spirit Airlines CIO Sapana Patel joins host Lauren Goerz to discuss how data, infrastructure, and leadership combine to make AI‑powered customer and employee experiences take flight—from foundational architecture to next‑generation conversational design.
On this episode of The Dialogue Architects, host Lauren Goerz speaks with Sapana Patel, Chief Information Officer at Spirit Airlines, about designing, scaling, and governing human‑machine conversations with strong data foundations.
Patel shares how her approach to technology leadership is driven by curiosity, creativity, and team reliability, likening technologists to artists shaping experiences through thoughtful design. She breaks down Spirit’s four AI layers—from enabling developers with Copilot and embedding AI helpers, to building in‑house conversational agents and predictive analytics—all with human verification at the core.
The conversation also explores how Spirit serves anonymous airline customers while keeping experiences secure, how metrics like solution ratio, revenue impact, uptime, stability, and security define success, and how her team uses an event‑driven services platform to deliver consistent data across customer touchpoints.
Patel closes with leadership insights on how to balance innovation with operational excellence, build trust across technical and business teams, and lead people through change in a fast‑evolving AI landscape.
00:00 Welcome and Guest Intro
00:58 Career Arc and Innovation
03:24 Four Layers of AI
08:53 AI ROI and Adoption
11:54 Anonymous Customers Challenge
13:39 Measuring Conversational Success
17:02 A/B Testing and Personalization
20:01 Conversation Insights and Payments
21:45 Common Services Platform
25:31 Leading Teams Through Change
29:03 Security and Infrastructure Priorities
30:11 Closing Thoughts and Thanks
Sapana Patel has served as Vice President and Chief Information Officer at Spirit Airlines since January 2026. She previously held the role of Senior Vice President, Solutions Architecture, where she led technology teams in close partnership with the business to transform Spirit’s technology stack.
Since joining Spirit in 2012, Patel has held several transformational leadership roles, including Senior Director of Solutions Delivery. Prior to Spirit, she held technology leadership positions at the University of Miami, Interval International, and Cargill, spanning more than 20 years. Patel began her aviation career with Northwest Airlines and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering and a Master’s degree in Aviation from Embry‑Riddle Aeronautical University.
About The Dialogue Architects
The Dialogue Architects is a podcast from Rasa, hosted by Lauren Goerz, exploring the craft and strategy behind designing conversational AI in the enterprise. Each episode brings together product leaders, designers, and engineers to unpack how dialogue is built, scaled, and governed in real‑world systems.
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