When ChatGPT emerged on the scene in late 2022, it put artificial intelligence, or AI, “in the zeitgeist.” While still in its infancy in the aviation industry, AI is now at the forefront of many people’s minds, said Rob Mather, v-p of aerospace and defense industries at software intelligence corporation IFS.

Less is known about what AI is and what it can do, but many agree it has the power to revolutionize how the industry does business.

“This is potentially the biggest technology transformation that we’ve ever seen, bigger than the computer itself,” said Greg Jarrett, CEO of aviation business operations systems provider Stack.aero.

While some discussion has centered on aircraft applications, AI’s potential runs the gamut for the industry with a range of possibilities on the ground from operating software, supply chain management, manufacturing efficiencies, and safety-enhancing technologies to charter management, human resources management, and maintenance diagnostics, among many others.

However, similar to the mantra for the evolution of electric vehicles, AI must take a crawl, walk, run approach—even though it is evolving so quickly that companies can barely keep up. This is because it must be proven secure and accurate, and—for now—it requires a human interface before its full potential can be unleashed.

AI is not new, said Mather, whose company is a $1 billion firm that provides cloud-based enterprise software for companies globally across industries, including aerospace and defense. Companies have used and still use early forms and predecessors. And more broad-based applications, such as Siri or Alexa, have their foundations in AI, consultancy McKinsey & Company pointed out.

Stepping into AI was a natural shift for IFS, which has focused on software solutions for decades. “We’re a legacy system,” Mather said. But now, “From IFS’ view, the future is all about AI,” he said, adding that his company is developing AI capabilities that build on the company’s core software offerings but also is looking to acquire other specialists in the field to expand its breadth of capabilities.