Pilot Attitudes Toward AI in the Cockpit: Implications for Design

As the aviation industry is actively working on adopting AI for air traffic, stakeholders agree on the need for a human-centered approach. However, automation design is often driven by user-centered intentions, while the development is actually technology-centered. This can be attributed to a discrepancy between the system designers' perspective and complexities in real-world use. The same can be currently observed with AI applications where most design efforts focus on the interface between humans and AI, while the overall system design is built on preconceived assumptions. To understand potential usability issues of AI-driven cockpit assistant systems from the users' perspective, we conducted interviews with four experienced pilots. While our participants did discuss interface issues, they were much more concerned about how autonomous systems could be a burden if the operational complexity exceeds their capabilities. Besides commonly addressed human-AI interface issues, our results thus point to the need for more consideration of operational complexities on a system-design level.