No need to fear the impact of Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is increasing a key enabler in bringing new efficiencies and cost savings to the aviation industry. Are there risks involved in its use? Associate editor and chief correspondent, Tom Ballantyne, hears one interpretation of its value to aviation.

December 1st 2023

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Ask Jitendra Sindhwani, president of Washington, DC-based global travel software company, ibssoftware, if AI could become a danger to humanity and the companies that use it and he can’t help but laugh. Read More » “I think the doomsday scenario is not going to happen,” he told Orient Aviation. “Leave that to the Hollywood script writers,” he said.

The risk, he added, is not in AI but in security. “The pay a lot of attention to security, i.e. can your data be hacked or misused. Cyber security is a bigger area in doing damage to you than AI.”

On the other hand, he pointed out, AI can help with security. “AI can play a big role in areas like fraud and security. In real time, your ability to predict some incident is happening, that is where AI can play a very big role,” he said. There always are markers the system can pick up, that human eyes cannot.”

IBS is a multi-national technology company providing Next Gen solutions. It manages mission critical operations for more than 200 customers including some of the best airlines, busiest airports, leading cruise lines, top oil and gas companies, travel distributors and hotel groups in the world.

Its airline customers in the Asia-Pacific include Malaysia Airlines, Philippine Airlines, China Airlines, Japan Airlines, All Nippon Airways, Korean Air and China Eastern Airlines. Its software platform iCargo went live earlier this year with Singapore Airlines, running its entire freight operation.

At Qantas Group, IBS software is used for cargo, the loyalty program and crew and flight operations. With the iFlight platform an airline’s entire operational spectrum can be planned, managed, optimized, automated and monitored through a single screen. According to the company, it’s AI and machine learning capabilities, along with smart optimizers, continuously improve operational dependability, efficiency, and robustness.

Sindhwani believes AI will play a big role in the airline business. “One will be customer experience. The personalization part is going to be one big bucket. It’s not yet fully AI because it is lot more rules driven rather than AI driven,” he said.

“But it can start to optimize it for individuals by knowing this person loves to do these activities and this person likes to fly to the U.S., make their experiences a lot better. The system will start to recommend you like this type of red wine from France and all that. That’s a small example but it goes a long way in terms of service and personalizing the whole travel experience.

“The second area is pricing. “It is going to become a lot more dynamic. Most of the airlines rely on the older ways of revenue management and pricing. With AI that will become a lot more dynamic.

“The third area, which usually has been ignored, is operations. It is definitely ripe for AI. It is where a lot of those capabilities are built into it. Take disruption. It should be pretty much zero human touch. The system should be able to recommend how you can kick start post any disruption.

“It is optimizing real time because when your operations are disrupted you need to know how to restart them by minimizing the impact on your passengers and utilizing the resources available to you, both for crew and the aircraft. How quickly can you do it so the disruption does not carry forward? The more time that elapses, the greater the cost and the challenges.

“It is a problem that keeps multiplying, so how do you minimize the time element of it? It becomes very complex because you have a lot manual processing to do with the limited manual capability that you have.

“A very powerful AI system can optimize this by looking at how many passengers are being impacted, where they are stuck, where are your crew and various aircraft and kick starting solutions in the most efficient manner.”

Even without disruption, areas like flight and crew operations are extremely complex. Sindhwani said many airlines have realized they needed to be more efficient. “It has a huge cost impact as well. We can give you an efficient platform which helps you optimize your crew as well as your flights.

“Our platform has the capability to give you more features to make the process a lot easier. These AI concepts are becoming very relevant. We are investing heavily in making this process a lot more AI driven rather than human driven.

“Take crew operations, which is a huge cost locked in at any point in time. If you are moving to a next gen system, which is built on AI, then you are seeing a multiple difference in cost.”