DUBAI: Airlines may not be replacing their pilots with artificial intelligence anytime soon, but aviation experts say the new technology is already revolutionizing the way business is done.
“Data and AI are amazing tools for the aviation industry,” Julie Pozzi, head of data science and AI at Air France-KLM, said ahead of the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) 80th Congress in Dubai.
Airline executives are gathering on Monday in the United Arab Emirates for the influential annual World Airlines Summit to discuss the latest in the industry, including upcoming AI projects.
Airlines, long accustomed to slim profit margins, see AI as the latest way to boost productivity and gain a competitive advantage.
Geoffrey Weston, principal aviation consultant at Bain & Company, said AI “is definitely the new frontier in terms of the incredible acceleration of technology and capabilities”.
“When there's a lot of uncertainty, where AI can really help is to greatly accelerate getting the right information to the right people as quickly as possible,” he said.
Air France-KLM is doing just that, running “more than 40 projects using generative artificial intelligence,” which, like the now-famous ChatGPT, is meant to improve over time.
The Franco-Dutch company's plans include a tool that will be installed on Air France staff's tablets to respond to customers in 85 languages, due to be in use at Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport in 2025.
“Assistive Intelligence
Airport operator ADP Group has also launched several AI initiatives in collaboration with startups, including Allobrain, which uses voice recognition to answer calls to airports.
“This has reduced the number of unanswered calls from 50 percent to 10 percent,” said Alban Negret, head of innovation at ADP.
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The airport operator hopes to streamline drop-off areas and shuttle rotations with the help of another subcontractor, Wintices, which specialises in extracting data from real-time surveillance images.
As air travel increases, reducing wait times has become one of the industry's key challenges, according to aerospace expert Jérôme Bouchard.
“We are continuing to travel in the same way we did in the 1970s, despite more and more passengers being packed into smaller and smaller spaces,” said Oliver Wyman, a transport and services consultant.
Referring to the potential use of facial recognition technology in airport security, he added that “there is room for improvement.”
“But all of this requires a huge amount of coordination and data synchronization,” Bouchard said, “that's still missing.”
Experts say modern aircraft are equipped with sophisticated self-diagnostic and control systems, turning them into data factories that can be harnessed by AI.
But there's no question that algorithms will take over flying the actual plane: Ultimately, “responsibility for decision-making will rest with humans,” Thales CEO Patrice Cain said in March.
“I don't want to talk about artificial intelligence, I want to talk about assistive intelligence – intelligence that assists humans.”
