Taking Aerospace AI to the Next Level: From Vision to Real-World Adoption

The urgency to move from experiments to execution
Jeroen Broekhuijsen (TNO) opened the event with a powerful message “AI is advancing at the same pace as the internet and smartphones and aerospace must not fall behind.Although awareness is high, most organisations are still proving concepts rather than scaling solutions. AI will impact all phases of the aerospace lifecycle: design, manufacturing, maintenance and support”.

His call to action was clear: start now, build strong digital foundations, develop talent and scale proven use cases with confidence. We are already behind and we can do this.

Panel Discussion: from potential to trusted deployment
The panel, featuring Jeroen Broekhuijsen (TNO), Adriaan van Kalkeren (SCSN), Marc van Leeuwen (KLM Engineering & Maintenance) and John Blankendaal (BIC), explored both opportunity and readiness across the aerospace sector.

Key themes included:
– Secure, trusted AI deployment
– Cross-industry collaboration with High Tech manufacturing
– Human-in-the-loop systems that elevate technicians and engineers rather than replace them
– Human-centred AI that supports decision-making and safety-critical work
– Turning knowledge into shared practice and shared learning

A core message was clear: in a safety-critical industry like aerospace, humans must remain firmly in control. AI should enhance expertise, improve consistency and reduce workload, while ensuring transparency, traceability and accountability.

The technology curve is moving fast, but trust, culture, governance and workforce enablement must advance in parallel.

Break-out Sessions: From ideas to impact
After the keynote and panel, participants dived into five hands-on sessions, each focused on turning AI ambition into real operational value. Rather than theory, these sessions showcased practical use cases, lessons learned, and opportunities for collaboration.

1. AI-Enabled Quality Control
Smarter inspection, faster anomaly detection and reduced variation across manufacturing processes. AI proved its value in accelerating quality decisions and supporting technicians on the shopfloor.

2. Shopfloor and Supply Chain Intelligence
How do we unlock efficiency while keeping sensitive aerospace data secure? Discussions covered Digital Product Passports, supply chain traceability and predictive planning, highlighting the balance between innovation and security in complex industrial networks.

3. Workforce Support: AR, VR and AI Assistants
Digital tools to empower technicians, not replace them — from immersive training to real-time guidance and remote support. The takeaway: human-in-the-loop remains essential and enabling people is the fastest path to scaling value.

4. Engineering and Model-Based Design Automation
AI-augmented engineering — supporting design, validation, simulation and system modelling. Digital twins and automated verification workflows stood out as major accelerators for aerospace development cycles.

5. Compliance and Documentation Automation
NLP and LLM-based tools tackling certification, traceability and engineering documentation. Participants saw how structured AI pipelines can reduce paperwork time and improve quality, while maintaining auditability and trust.

Shared insight across all sessions
Start small, prove value quickly, ensure data confidence and scale with purpose. Secure pilots build trust and trust unlocks adoption.

Momentum that continues beyond the room
The afternoon wrapped up with group reflections, vendor demonstrations and active networking, where new partnerships and PPS opportunities quickly emerged. Participants exchanged ideas, explored collaboration paths and discussed how to turn shared ambitions into concrete projects.

It became clear that there is strong urgency to move forward. The atmosphere buzzed with energy and curiosity, powered by a shared determination to build the future of AI-enabled aerospace together. Participants agreed that momentum must continue, and that deeper collaboration will be essential to accelerate real-world progress. Based on this enthusiasm, we will explore organising a follow-up event next year to continue the conversation, showcase developments and drive the next steps as a community.

This event is made possible by a top sector HTSM TKI grant.

National Smart Industry survey
Please take a moment to complete the national Smart Industry survey — your input matters. https://bit.ly/smartindustry-nl