March 6, 2025
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already making an impact on aviation and will become an essential tool for all aspects of the industry over the next 10 years and beyond, according to a panel of experts in the recent NBAA Thought Leadership Webinar: Looking Beyond 2035 – Rethinking Global Logistics and Aviation in an AI-Driven World.
“One of the first applications we are seeing of AI in aviation is the use of data to optimize fuel consumption. The data already exists to make this a reality, and the industry is making that happen,” said Aviv Castro, CEO of supply chain solutions company Sensos, which sponsored the webinar. “And this is just the beginning. We are seeing other sectors like the locomotive industry reduce accidents dramatically due to AI and machine learning capabilities, and these technologies will definitely help aviation predict the potential for accidents.”
Data will power AI’s growth, and with projections that by 2050 data creation will grow 1,000 times today’s levels, the technology will become a core business tool, said renowned futurist Nikolas Badminton. “When you can analyze large amounts of data, you really get to a deep sense of your challenges and your opportunities, and AI can really help you find solutions while streamlining your operations to create a better service for your customers,” he said.
The potential of AI is boundless, but that doesn’t mean the technology will touch every aspect of the aviation community, Castro noted.
“AI is laying the stepping stones for a more intelligent, efficient and automated supply chain, but with all innovation, this must be balanced between vision and execution. AI and machine learning will be asked to solve a lot of pain points, but these need to be filtered against the three principles of market impact, market validation and scalability to ensure these technology solutions are necessary,” Castro explained.
AI alone will not change aviation and global logistics, added Badminton. “There are going to be some really useful tools that come out from using machine learning and AI techniques, but AI should not be your strategy,” he said.
“AI is a technology that you can add to your stack of capabilities, but it needs to be integrated in the context of your business and applied according to your operational functions. Importantly, AI can shift your mindset from “What is?” to “What if?’ which allows you to be more strategic about the use of technology by embracing the imagination, anticipation and empathy that’s core to being a futurist,” Badminton said.
Business aviation operators should also look to AI as a long-term solution rather than an answer for today’s concerns,” he noted. “The evidence is already there on AI’s potential, and while it can seem to be a solution that works over the next five years, to get the most out of this technology, you draw a line between that a future point, let’s say 2035 and 2025, and step back from that point to how that gives you a competitive advantage. If you are applying AI without looking ahead at to the future, you’re literally just buying software and hardware to plug pain points.”
Adopters should also be cognizant of AI’s potential, said Badminton. “The thing about change is that it’s inevitable, but typically, this comes about as an evolution and not a revolution. AI is no different.”
International Business Aviation Council Ltd.