Airlines may not be replacing pilots with artificial intelligence any time soon, but aviation industry experts say the up-to-date technology is already revolutionizing the way business is conducted.
“Data and artificial intelligence are fantastic levers for the aviation sector,” said Julie Pozzi, director of data analytics and artificial intelligence at Air France-KLM, ahead of the 80th meeting of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in Dubai.
Airline executives will gather on Monday at the influential annual Global Airline Summit in the United Arab Emirates to discuss the latest industry developments, including upcoming AI projects.
Aviation companies, long accustomed to low profit margins, see artificial intelligence as the latest way to boost productivity and gain a competitive advantage.
Artificial intelligence is “undoubtedly the up-to-date frontier as it provides extraordinary acceleration in technology and capabilities,” said Geoffrey Weston, principal aerospace consultant at U.S. firm Bain & Company.
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“When there’s a lot of uncertainty… artificial intelligence is really helpful in dramatically speeding up getting the right information to the right people as quickly as possible,” he said.
Air France-KLM does this through “over 40 projects using generative artificial intelligence,” which, like the now famed ChatGPT, is designed to improve as it is used.
The French-Dutch company’s plans include a customer response tool in 85 different languages, to be installed on the tablets of Air France agents and to be used in 2025 at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris.
Assisted intelligence
The airport’s operator, Groupe ADP, has also launched several artificial intelligence initiatives with start-ups – including Allobrain, which uses voice recognition to answer phone calls to the airport.
This reduced “the number of missed phone calls from 50 percent to 10 percent,” said Alban Negret, ADP’s head of innovation.
The airport operator hopes to improve drop-off zones and shuttle rotations with the facilitate of another subcontractor, Wintics, which specializes in extracting data from real-time surveillance images.
As air travel increases, reducing wait times is one of the industry’s top challenges, according to aviation expert Jerome Bouchard.
“We have more and more passengers in increasingly confined spaces and we still travel as we did in the 1970s,” said a consultant at Oliver Wyman’s transport and services department.
“There is a lot to be done,” he added, referring to the potential of using facial recognition in airport security services.
“But all of this requires enormous coordination and data synchronization,” which Bouchard says is still lacking.
According to experts, up-to-date aircraft equipped with advanced self-diagnosis and control systems are data factories that can be used using artificial intelligence.
But when it comes to actually flying the plane, they say there’s no way we can leave it to the algorithms.
Ultimately, “people must take responsibility for making decisions,” Thales CEO Patrice Caine said in March.
“Instead of artificial intelligence, I would talk about assisted intelligence, intelligence that helps people.”
