The rise of AI and tech in aviation

A conversation with Furkan Ozgunaydin always begins the same way. He smiles, he seems relaxed, and then within a minute he tells you something that makes you realise aviation is far stranger, more old fashioned and more full of opportunity than most people ever imagine. He grew up in Istanbul, arrived in Lithuania almost by accident, stepped into a career fair with no expectations and walked out with a path into one of the most complex industries on earth. Aviation is a place where the deals are enormous, the risks are real, the paperwork is endless and the digital revolution is ten years behind schedule.

Furkan entered the field in the most classic way. A sharp suit, a long commute from Kaunas to Vilnius, a sense of curiosity and the first taste of what real aviation business feels like. It was not software or cloud tools or fast moving apps. It was engines worth several million, heavy documentation, global pressure and sales calls where you are expected to know every detail before the buyer even asks. His first big deal closed early. His passion for the industry arrived even earlier.

Today he leads sales and marketing at Sensus Aero, the aviation technology arm of Avia Solutions Group, and the contrast between his early days and today says everything about the industry. The giants of aviation still run on paper stacks, complicated manual processes and systems built in another century. Yet the need for change has never been clearer.

The Strange Reality of Aviation Workflows

Furkan loves showing outsiders what aviation looks like behind the curtains. A single engineer in a maintenance hangar can go through ten thousand sheets of paper each year. Every repair on an aircraft must be documented, signed, stamped, scanned, archived and stored for up to a decade. If anything goes wrong years later, the paper trail becomes evidence. Templates live in dusty binders. Signatures still happen with pens, not styluses. And the amount of coordination required for a single maintenance task borders on absurd.

This is why aviation software is not a casual software project. It is a world where a failure can shut down an airline, cause accidents or burn millions. Everything is regulated. Everything has consequences. And everything must be proven before it can be trusted.

Which is exactly why the market is wide open. The giants are old. The tools are old. The processes are old. The need for true digital transformation is enormous. But the path is not easy.

The Reality of Selling in Aviation

Selling software in aviation is not like selling in any other industry. The sales cycle can take a year. The implementation can take another year. The deal size is serious. The decision makers are surrounded by committees and safety standards and regulatory constraints. And your competition often has a three decade head start.

Furkan says the truth clearly. If a young B2B seller wants to enter aviation, they need three things: patience, curiosity and the ability to absorb technical context fast. Nothing in this field is light. You are selling into companies that operate aircraft worth hundreds of millions. A mistake on your side can cost an airline far more than the price of your software.

It is also the closest you can get to the classical long term relationship game. When your client signs, they usually sign for five to ten years. You become part of their operation. You get to know their team. You get to know their pain points. You stay in that world long enough to understand it from the inside. For ambitious sellers, this is a secret advantage. Once you learn to win in aviation, you can win anywhere.

Why Innovation Moves So Slowly Here

People outside the industry always ask the same question. Why is aviation so far behind. How can an aircraft be so advanced while the workflow around it looks like a pre internet office.

Furkan’s answer is simple. Risk. Every system in aviation touches safety, regulation, compliance and engineering standards. You cannot reinvent anything quickly. You cannot run fast and break things. You must earn trust layer by layer, certification by certification, integration by integration.

That is exactly why true disruption is rare. And exactly why there is a massive greenfield for the companies brave enough to go after it.

Where AI and Technology Are Finally Breaking Through

The most interesting theme in our conversation was not the paperwork, not the legacy tech and not even the enormous deals. It was the moment Furkan began talking about machine learning and predictive maintenance.

The data inside airlines and maintenance companies is enormous. Years of inspections. Thousands of components. Records of every repair, every cycle, every failure, every pattern. Until now this data sat in storage. Soon it will start working for the industry.

Predictive maintenance will extend aircraft life. AI planning systems will reduce scheduling chaos. Automated documentation will cut thousands of hours of wasted labour. Digital signatures will finally replace paper. And the industry will begin to behave like a modern system instead of an outdated machine held together by coffee and highlighters.

This shift will not be loud. It will not look like the flashy consumer tech world. But inside the hangars, the change will be historic.

The New Shape of Aviation Startups

If someone wants to build a startup in aviation, Furkan offers one piece of advice. Do not build alone. Find an airline or maintenance company that will work with you from day one. Without their real world knowledge, no product will survive. With their knowledge, a single strong case study can open the entire market.

Aviation is small. Reputation moves fast. A single success can turn into dozens. And unlike crowded SaaS markets, aviation has space. Not the easy kind, but the kind with real potential for companies that understand what they are doing.

The Future Passenger Experience

Furkan is honest here. Most of the transformation will happen behind the scenes. Passengers will feel it through faster boarding, smarter identity checks, easier security and fewer delays. Airports will automate more. Training will use virtual reality. And the customer experience will slowly move closer to frictionless.

The Mindset Behind the Job

Furkan stays sharp the same way he entered the industry in the first place. Discipline. Curiosity. Fitness. News every morning. Competitor monitoring. Product analysis. And a constant habit of looking five years into the future instead of copying what the market is doing today. He approaches aviation like a long game. You do not sprint. You stay consistent.

A Final Thought

Aviation is one of the last giants still waiting for its full digital revolution. For people like Furkan, this is not a problem. It is an invitation. The industry is old, but the opportunity is young. And for the sellers, founders and builders willing to enter this world with patience and ambition, the next decade will be full of space to shape something meaningful.

If someone can help push this industry forward, it is exactly the kind of person who once walked into a Lithuanian career fair, asked a stranger to sell him an engine, and walked out with a career inside one of the most complex markets in the world.

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