Southwest Airlines: GenAI modernizes crew leave management system

What sparked the need for change?

“Our crew application, which helps manage leave and attendance, was built on a legacy tech stack. It was slowing things down as it became increasingly difficult to maintain and enhance the system, especially due to a lack of accurate documentation and an overreliance on tacit knowledge. We saw an opportunity to improve and update the technology so Southwest could mitigate potential risks, align operations with future business demand and support our operational efficiency and reliability goals.”

What solution did the teams unlock by working together?

“PwC brought an innovative engineering approach along with GenAI, built on Microsoft Azure, to reverse-engineer the legacy system’s complex source code into holistic functional requirements. This approach extracted the key requirements and transformed them into a prioritized backlog, accelerating planning and design informed by Southwest knowledge specialists. Collaborative workshops with PwC to review content and continually enhance GenAI capabilities focused on the backlog provided clarity and efficiency. With PwC, we condensed what could have been a months-long effort into a five-week milestone.”

Where did tech innovation meet human ingenuity?

“While GenAI tools automated labor-intensive tasks like scalable code analysis and dependency mapping, PwC facilitated workshops and iterative reviews that helped align the outputs with our operational needs — blending leading-edge technology with strategic human insights. Rather than replacing employees, these advancements freed up valuable time, allowing our teams to think critically, solve complex problems and drive innovation. Working together in this way helped our teams make smart choices. In turn, this helped our teams get ready for the next steps in the project and kept us more aligned.”

What was the real-world impact of approaching things differently?

“What really stood out was how PwC fused GenAI and advanced software engineering techniques to turn a legacy system into a forward-thinking modernization plan. By deconstructing and analyzing every line of code in the legacy application, the PwC team brought a whole new level of insight, which was key to creating a high-confidence delivery plan. PwC’s ability to think beyond standard practices and integrate both technical and industry perspectives made this project the go-to example for future initiatives.”