Furkan Ozgunaydin: How AI and Tech Are About to Rewrite Aviation

When you listen to Furkan Ozgunaydin, you realize how strange aviation really is. It is a global system running on talent, intuition, and an unbelievable amount of paper. His own entry into the industry started with a simple challenge he gave to a broker back in his student years.

Furkan Ozgunaydin: “Sell me your product with yourself.”

The broker told him an aircraft engine could cost up to five million and a single deal might earn a double digit commission. That conversation became the spark. From that moment he went all in.

A career built on complexity and persistence

Furkan talks openly about the early grind. He was still studying, calling eighty companies a day, trying to understand engine logs that ran for thousands of pages.

Furkan Ozgunaydin: “Everyone around me was closing millions and I was just starting. But aviation pulls you in.”

What kept him going was the intensity of the environment and the scale of the deals. Walking into hangars, seeing aircraft torn apart for maintenance, learning how components move across continents. It was a world that rewards long term thinking and punishes shortcuts.

Why aviation desperately needs new technology

Today Furkan leads sales and marketing at Sensus Aero. If he sounds urgent about innovation, there is a reason.

Furkan Ozgunaydin: “In the hangar one employee consumes at least ten thousand pages of paper. Every day you print, sign, scan and throw it away.”

Aviation is behind the technology curve by five to ten years. Processes that software could handle in minutes still take whole shifts. Regulatory pressure slows things down. Legacy tools are deeply embedded. And the industry is only now waking up to what AI and automation can unlock.

This gap, he believes, is a massive opportunity for founders and technical people.

The invisible long game of enterprise aviation sales

Furkan describes aviation sales as a world built on patience, preparation and long term relationships.

Furkan Ozgunaydin: “The contract is ten years. The sales cycle can be fifteen months. If you fail, the customer loses millions.”

Aviation buyers are not just decision makers. They are mechanics, engineers, operations managers and safety teams. A deal touches dozens of people. Everything must be proven, not promised.

For junior sellers it can feel terrifying. But Furkan believes this is exactly why the field is worth entering.

Furkan Ozgunaydin: “If you can sell here, you can sell anything.”

AI, machine learning and the hangar of the future

Furkan’s view of the next decade is clear. Aviation will not be transformed by consumer facing gadgets. It will be transformed in the places the public never sees.

Furkan Ozgunaydin: “The data is already there. The question is how fast we can use it.”

Predictive maintenance, automated planning, AI driven scheduling, digital identity for technicians, VR based training for pilots and mechanics. Decisions will shift from paper binders to models that understand patterns better than humans.

It will make aviation safer, faster, more efficient, and less dependent on manual tasks.

Why aviation startups must build with insiders, not outside them

Furkan warns founders against trying to disrupt aviation from the outside.

Furkan Ozgunaydin: “If you are not from the industry, you will not even know what the real problem is.”

Successful aviation startups grow by pairing with an airline, MRO or ground handling provider. The partner provides operational knowledge. The startup provides technology. The result scales quickly because aviation is a small, global village. One strong case study becomes twenty customers.

Staying sharp in an industry ruled by pressure

Furkan’s personal routine is as structured as an aircraft maintenance checklist. He trains twice a day. He monitors industry news every morning. He studies competitors. He evaluates marketing data. He plans five years ahead.

Furkan Ozgunaydin: “Strong body is strong mind.”

He also treats airports as networking grounds, not travel hubs. The people he meets between gates often become partners, clients or advisors.

The next decade belongs to those who build now

Furkan believes aviation is on the edge of transformation. Not the kind passengers will notice instantly, but the kind that reshapes how the entire sector works. Paper disappears. Data becomes central. AI handles the hidden layers of decision making. Startups collaborate directly with enterprises. And the companies that adapt early will redefine the market.

Furkan Ozgunaydin: “Aviation is behind the curve. But that is exactly why the opportunity is huge.”