Impact of artificial intelligence on aeronautics: An industry-wide review

Abstract

Curiously, there are few contributions in the scientific literature on the subject of artificial intelligence (AI) and its impact on aeronautics. However, many communications and reports have been published by aeronautic companies about their applications of AI technologies. This article makes an industry-wide review of AI in aeronautics using a three-step sequential approach: (i) a review of AI and its concepts to define and develop a conceptual map; (ii) a selection of 100 use cases from aeronautics companies that use AI technologies (e.g., Airbus, Boeing, Air France, Safran, EasyJet, Dassault Aviation, Altair); and (iii) an analysis of the use cases using the topics defined in the conceptual map. The main results describe a rising interest in the integration of AI technologies by entities in the aeronautic sector. Moreover, the results from the use cases show that the most recurrent technologies are big data analytics, autonomous intelligent systems, predictive analytics, machine learning, and robotics. Another finding is related to the several benefits that motivate companies to integrate AI technologies into their industrial and operational processes. The most frequent benefits include customer satisfaction, saving time, safety and security, cost reduction, better decision making, solving complex problems, and ensuring optimisation and efficiency. It also appears that the performance of companies is positively impacted by using these AI technologies. Such impacts span all operational departments including marketing, where these technologies help satisfy customer needs; the industrial and operational area, which is provided with quality products; and where productivity and economic performance are optimised for more efficiency.