How AI Will Revolutionize The Aviation And Airport Industry

Tech-loving frequent flyers would probably agree that the airline industry is ripe for disruption. Almost every aspect of flying, from the check-in process to the boarding of an aircraft, can feel quite archaic in a digital era that retires friction points rather than enhancing them.

Behind the scenes, poor flight planning is responsible for 60% of accidents in commercial aviation, not to mention human error. However, advances in aviation technology and AI will be able to track any airplane’s exact altitude or even use autopilot to navigate the aircraft back to safety if it is in a risk position.

The introduction of voice recognition and machine learning will also enable pilots to have an interactive and safer experience when piloting airplanes. Some might argue that in the future AI could go as far as rendering human pilots obsolete. But I suspect this is something that very few passengers would be ready embrace for many years to come.

One of the biggest strengths of AI is to make sense of big data. Try to imagine data containing essential information from flight tracking, weather conditions, airports, airlines, passengers, and air safety reports that can be analyzed in real time to help airlines increase sales, manage fuel, and improve the customer experience or services.

For example, one of the biggest headaches for the aviation industry is turbulence. It's one of the biggest causes of accidents and injuries in the air and responsible for the loss of millions of dollars in compensation. Post-event inspections and repairs are often invisible to passengers, but they will be more than familiar with flight delays, extra fuel charges, or route deviations. Once again, by analyzing data in real-time, airlines could potentially avoid aviation turbulence entirely.

It's already well documented that our critical infrastructure is becoming a big target for cyber attackers. Airlines must start improving all digital touchpoints and security of the IT systems that support them. The financial risks, service disruption, cyber fraud, and vulnerabilities of planes flying at 30,000 feet relying on technology are things that need to be taken very seriously.

AI can help cybersecurity solutions to learn and adapt to an increasing number of sophisticated attacks. Tech-savvy passengers are also looking to airlines to lead by example and remove their frustrations by improving the passenger experience. As a result, many airlines and airports are investing in AI to improve services, but they have also been guilty of building new solutions on top of an old technology stack.

Artificial intelligence is already beginning to rewrite the rulebook for the travel industry. Personalization, when done in a non-creepy manner, can also predict the behavior of travelers and even unlock new revenue opportunities in the process.

The good news is that it seems that there are exciting times ahead in the industry and hopefully many of our most prominent frustrations with flying will soon be eradicated. There is an argument that many of the top airlines are already flying in the right direction to deliver meaningful change.

For example, Emirates has already started work on an Innovation Lab with Carnegie Mellon University as part of its transformation strategy. They believe that data and technology are key to improving processes as well as the customer experience.

Elsewhere, KLM is focusing on customer experience with its trial of an AI-specialist called Digital Genius, which uses AI to help airlines answer queries it receives via social media. Even United Airlines has collaborated with Amazon’s Alexa with a “United skill.” Users can ask Alexa to find answers to the most common questions (FAQs) about United flights.

I do find this a bit depressing since these Airlines are using simple chatbots at best that look up pre-loaded information from webpages or documents to hone in on keywords and respond. However, there are much more advanced AIs out there now in the market such as Amelia, that has the capability of having two-way near-human level conversations with consumers, and act as a personal concierge to help look up and book flights, and do a bunch of other tasks only a human concierge can accomplish, compared to a chatbot.

Love them or hate them, prepare for machine learning algorithms that will play a crucial role in how in how airlines translate their data interpretation and transform into valuable outcomes for themselves. But will passengers embrace or fear the introduction of more technology into the industry?

A growing consumer thirst for international travel will continue to make our planet to feel much smaller. As a result, the multibillion-dollar industry of aviation is expected to increase dramatically over the next 20 years as airlines expand their fleets and flight schedules, boosting the job market in the process.

For these reasons alone, I don't there will be too many complaints if AI can successfully tackle disruption head on and improve the passenger experience along the way. Just remember where you heard about it first.