How LATAM Airlines Accelerates Experimentation with ABsmartly

LATAM Airlines knew that to stay ahead of the game, they needed to refine their experimentation strategy. But without a standardized, scalable approach, teams were running tests in silos, results were inconsistent, and decision-making lacked statistical rigor. The uncertainty slowed product development, making it harder to innovate with confidence. They had explored various tools, but none offered the flexibility, speed, or depth needed to embed experimentation across the organization.

That changed when LATAM partnered with ABsmartly.

By adopting a customizable, statistically rigoros experimentation platform, LATAM has optimized its customer experience and moved from a scattered approach to a data-led approach, which has democratized experimentation.

The Challenge: Scaling Experimentation Without Sacrificing Rigor

Before working with ABsmartly, LATAM’s lack of a standardized framework for experimentation meant their results weren’t always trustworthy, which made it difficult to draw clear conclusions, slowing down decision-making and limiting the impact of experimentation.

LATAM faced a significant challenge as their experimentation efforts were fragmented and imprecise. The nearly 40 product teams operated independently, and their maturity levels in testing were varied. Some teams were experienced in running experiments, while others were brand new to testing. Without structured, company-wide experimentation best practices, different teams approached testing in different ways. Some experiments lacked statistical rigour, leading to inconclusive or misleading results. The company risked making product decisions based on incomplete or inaccurate data without a way to validate findings confidently. 

In the past, LATAM’s experiments also relied on fixed-horizon testing, which requires tests to run for a predetermined period before drawing conclusions. This approach often led to experiments running longer than necessary, taking more valuable time and resources and slowing down the pace of innovation. This need for both scalability and scientific rigour led LATAM to ABsmartly.

The Solution: How LATAM Integrated ABsmartly

LATAM phased in ABsmartly’s tool using a targeted proof-of-value period instead of a complete overhaul of their experimentation process. During the first month, LATAM launched five carefully selected experiments to test the impact of the new platform. 

The initial tests showed clear benefits, validating the value of structured experimentation and paving the way for wider adoption across the company. LATAM quickly moved from a centralized experimentation model, where only a small group of teams were actively testing, to a more autonomous, team-driven approach. The goal was to democratize experimentation, allowing teams across the organization to design, execute, and analyze their own experiments.

The Benefits of Using ABsmartly

Partnering with ABsmartly has given LATAM a faster, more precise way to experiment, allowing teams to focus on initiatives that drive business impact. By providing a statistically rigorous and scalable experimentation platform, ABsmartly has enabled LATAM to optimize everything from digital experiences to ancillary product offerings, helping the airline better understand its customers and improve engagement across key touch points.

LATAM’s teams can now test hypotheses quickly, measure their impact with statistical certainty, and iterate much more quickly. This has been particularly useful in optimizing how LATAM presents its products to customers. From refining how flight options are displayed to increasing the visibility of ancillary products such as hotels and travel insurance, experimentation has helped LATAM drive higher engagement and uptake of these offerings.

The impact of this approach is reflected in measurable business outcomes.

Since implementing ABsmartly, LATAM has seen:

• A 5.17% increase in unique flight quotes from promotional landing pages, underlining the effectiveness of data-driven optimization.
• A 54% efficiency gain in experiment durations by leveraging Group Sequential Testing (GST), allowing teams to make decisions faster and allocate resources more effectively.
• A tripling in the number of teams actively running experiments, expanding from 4 to 12, as experimentation becomes a core part of LATAM’s product development process.

ABsmartly’s support and best practices guidance have also been key to LATAM’s success. As Rafael Buitrago Osorio, LATAM Airlines’ Digital Experimentation Consultant, notes:

“Working with ABsmartly has allowed us to learn quicker, provide a better customer experience, and supports us in our goal to scale and democratise experimentation culture across 30 product teams. The platform is built for collaboration, innovation, and statistical rigor–but their support and guidance on best experimentation practices have truly accelerated adoption.”

The Culture Shift: Experimentation as a Core Business Practice

LATAM has democratized experimentation. Testing hypotheses used to be limited to a handful of product teams, but now it has expanded across the organization and moved well beyond products only. Experimentation has become a fundamental driver of innovation and strategic decision-making across the business.

Rafael Buitrago, describes this shift:

“Experimentation is no longer just for product teams. It is becoming embedded across LATAM. From customer service to marketing, teams are embracing a culture of continuous learning, using data to drive better decisions.”

With ABsmartly’s support, LATAM has progressed through two distinct stages of experimentation maturity, each building on the last to create a scalable, data-driven culture.

LATAM has moved through two key stages of experimentation maturity:

• Crawl. Experimentation was centralized, with a dedicated team running basic tests and focusing on data collection.
• Walk. More teams experimented, introduced standard frameworks, and took the first steps towards experimentation democratization.

Now, with ABsmartly’s support, LATAM is progressing toward full-scale experimentation maturity’s last two steps:

• Run. Teams will have the autonomy to run their own experiments, supported by well-defined best practices and a structured approach to process optimization.
• Fly. Experimentation becomes fully democratized, with large-scale, real-time testing embedded into LATAM’s product lifecycle.

With ABsmartly’s continued support, LATAM is democratizing experimentation. What began as an effort to standardize testing across product teams has evolved into a company-wide transformation. LATAM is not just scaling experimentation. It is building a data-driven organization where every decision is validated through testing. With ABsmartly’s continued support, LATAM is setting a new industry standard for how airlines innovate, adapt, and deliver superior customer experiences.

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