Artificial intelligence (AI) has become the aviation’s industry buzzword of the decade. Predictive analytics, chatbots, and biometrics are all hailed as the tools airlines and airports must have to optimise processes and manage ever-increasing volumes of passengers. Yet the gap between AI ambitions and reality will grow ever wider if aviation fails to implement a realistic strategy for adoption.

In this exclusive interview, Rafa Mercado, Vice President and Consumer & Travel Consult Partner for Kyndryl, discusses these challenges and how aviation can see real impact through AI implementation. Critical to address is the gap between perceptions of AI, and their actual impact.

Our research finds that while 86% of leaders reported confidence in their AI implementation and believe it is best-in-class, only 42% reported seeing a positive return on their AI investments.

Mercado talks through three key pitfalls to avoid when implementing AI, from overlooking useful, but less flashy, use cases, to ignoring usability.

How do you enable and empower the users that are going to use your system? You need to bring early in the game organisational management practices to do that effectively. 

As well as user-friendly interfaces, aviation will fail to see strong returns on AI investment without first checking that their data is robust.

Businesses cannot afford to say that they can’t deploy AI because their infrastructure is not ready, or their data is in silos. They need to have a modern data foundation and architecture that can be scaled depending on the use case.

Once these foundations have been established, and KPIs have been set, Mercado believes AI can become a viable solution to the challenges the industry is so keen to address.

🎥 Watch the full interview to get Rapha Mercado’s full perspective on successful AI adoption.

Questions asked include:

  • What are the common traps airlines fall into when turning AI ambitions into reality?
  • What effective AI use cases can we highlight?
  • What is the best step to take to lay the foundations for innovation?

Join us at Aviation Festival Americas 2026, where our dedicated AI panel will be discussing effective use cases and strategies for tech adoption. 

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