How AI Could Change the Future of Flying - For Better or Worse

AI dominating the future is inevitable. It’s already changing our daily lives, whether it’s automatic spell check on our phones, or maps and navigation while driving - but this is the tip of the iceberg for how it’s going to shape the future.

With the rise of self driving cars it was only a matter of time until AI was going to be used within the aviation world. Data from Precedence Research indicates the global market for AI aviation is meant to soar to $9,985.86 million by 2030.

But will the increasing use of AI in the flying industry eradicate the use of pilots? And what could go wrong if AI in aviation is relied upon too heavily?

How AI Could Positively Influence the Flying World

Like all new technologies, AI has the potential to improve our lives for the better, but when it goes wrong, it could be fatal. When pilots already have the responsibility of thousands of lives on their shoulders, an AI failure could have devastating impacts. However, there are some serious benefits that shouldn’t be overlooked.

• More efficiency with air traffic control

If you’ve ever opened up Flightradar, it can be a startling sight to see how crowded the skies are at any one time. One of the biggest positives of using AI in aviation is that it can help with managing air traffic control.

AI can learn and interpret data and can be put to use in autonomous traffic management systems and real time airspace coordination - making it easier for pilots to manage the skies and how many flights run at any given time. This could potentially speed up flights as AI establishes more efficient flight paths, or even can increase the amount of flights available.

• Moving towards sustainable flying

We all know that flying is one of the least sustainable travel options, but using AI could make it greener. AI tools have the capability of not only calculating the environmental impacts of each flight, but can design optimal flight paths to reduce emissions.

AI can achieve this through analysing real time weather, wind patterns and air traffic data to calculate the most fuel efficient routes. There’s no doubt this would be a positive for an industry that’s often pigeonholed as being detrimental to the environment.

• Seamless pre flight checks and troubleshooting

As a pilot, there’s so much to think about and prepare for before take off. With the use of AI Co-pilot it can not only speed this process up, but make sure no vital steps are missed. Humans are only human, and the temptation to skip steps on a checklist can be tempting. But the use of AI makes this more efficient and takes the time away from the pilot who can be getting on with something else.

Use of Co-pilot systems also enables the pilot to seamlessly find out information about aircraft operation, performance metrics and troubleshooting. Ultimately, the use of these AI systems could make life a lot easier for pilots and speed up tasks which are effectively more time consuming than they should be.

Using AI in Flying Isn’t Risk Free

Like everything, if we rely too much on technologies instead of the learned skills of humans there is the potential for system errors which could have drastic impacts. The more we rely on digital technology, the more we open ourselves up to the risk of hacking and cyber security, which is why the negative aspects of using AI in aviation has to be taken seriously.

• Hacking and cyber security

Relying more on machines instead of humans may speed the routines of flying up, but there is a huge amount of risk in giving one system a huge amount of data which involves passenger information and more.

What’s more, it only takes a small glitch for systems to fail, as we recently saw with Microsoft, and with flying this would have a huge impact on passenger safety. As we rely more on AI in the future, the risk of cyber attacks only increases.

• Ethical capabilities

AI has to be programmed with a select range of information and has to be fed data in order for it to operate and respond to situations. But there’s only so much it can respond to. Like using ChatGPT, there’s only a certain range of information it has access to.

With flying, there are a range of emergency situations and even ethical ones that can arise from incidents or fatalities, which begs the question, if we rely on AI fully, will it have the capacity to respond to delicate situations? After all, the technology can only be programmed so far. In some instances, humans will always have better judgement.

• Job displacement

According to the Civil Aviation Organization, there were 350,000 airline pilots worldwide in 2019, and that number is no doubt even greater today. Although the use of AI in aviation is unlikely to completely eradicate pilots in the future, it could have the potential to influence those who have jobs in the assist systems.

With technology advancing the efficiency of air traffic control it’s possible in the future that certain jobs could be impacted but pilots will learn to adapt with these technologies to use it to aid flying, rather than completely take over.

Has this got you thinking about Flying? Why not try a Simulator Flying Experience? or if you’re feeling brave, what about an Aeroplane Flying Lesson? With a wide range of experiences across the UK, Flydays is the number one destination for aviation lovers!