You walk onto the floor, and within the first few minutes you’re already shaking hands with people you haven’t seen in months. Customers, partners, old colleagues, competitors. Aviation is a surprisingly small world, and PB Expo is one of those events where that reality becomes very clear very quickly.
Day one was exactly that.
Miami Beach Convention Center Panel
Great conversations. Familiar faces. New introductions. A lot of learning happening in real time.
I also had the privilege of being invited to participate in the Aviation Commerce panel, which turned out to be one of the most interesting parts of the day.
The topic was exactly what you’d expect: aviation commerce. Marketplaces. Technology. How companies buy and sell parts in an increasingly digital environment.
But something interesting happened. The conversation drifted. And it drifted in the same direction that almost every technology conversation in aviation seems to be going right now.
It drifted to AI.
The AI Conversation Is Everywhere
You can’t spend five minutes at a conference right now without someone bringing up artificial intelligence.
It happens in panel discussions. It happens at booths. It happens in the hallway between meetings. Everyone is talking about AI.
But one thing quickly becomes clear when you listen closely:
Many people are using the same word to describe very different things.
For some, AI means automation. For others, it means data analysis or predictive systems. For some, it simply means tools like ChatGPT.
And for many people, it’s something they’re still trying to understand, something they’re curious about but also a little cautious of.
During the panel discussion, I talked briefly about some of the capabilities we’ve been building at ERP.Aero. But what I really tried to emphasize was something I don’t think gets talked about enough.
Education.
Because the biggest barrier to technology adoption right now isn’t capability.
It’s understanding.
The Fear Behind Automation
One of the most interesting conversations I had yesterday involved quoting.
Someone mentioned that their team still writes quotes manually.
That statement comes up more often than you might think. And usually, it’s followed by a concern about automation, specifically what happens if software starts doing the work people are currently doing by hand.
But the moment you shift the perspective, the conversation changes.
I usually ask a simple question: What if the system wrote the quote automatically?
Then I follow it with another one: What would your team do with the eight hours they just got back?
Suddenly the tone of the conversation changes. Because most aviation companies don’t have a quoting problem. They have a time problem.
Sales teams are buried in administrative work. Writing quotes. Re-entering data. Copying information from one system to another.
Automation doesn’t remove the value of the team.
It removes the friction that prevents them from focusing on the work that actually drives revenue.
And when people see that clearly, the hesitation usually turns into curiosity.
The Speed of Technology Is Different Now
Historically, major technology shifts take time. Sometimes years. Sometimes decades. Industries slowly learn, adapt, and evolve. But what’s happening right now feels different.
AI technology is moving incredibly fast. It doesn’t feel like a generational shift. It feels like something that’s evolving almost weekly. That pace creates both excitement and uncertainty.
Aviation, by nature, is an industry built around safety, compliance, and precision. Those things don’t naturally move at startup speed.
So what we’re seeing right now is an industry trying to balance two things at the same time:
The stability aviation requires. And the speed technology is introducing.
When Curiosity Becomes Risk
One story I heard yesterday illustrates the challenge perfectly.
Someone mentioned they had uploaded their general ledger into ChatGPT to get insights into their financial data.
On the surface, it sounded like someone experimenting with modern tools to better understand their business.
But then the details emerged. They were a defense contractor.
Which means uploading that data into an open AI system potentially violated several compliance frameworks, including NIST and CMMC requirements.
That’s not a failure of technology.
It’s a gap in education.
Many people still don’t understand the difference between open AI models and closed-loop AI systems. They don’t fully understand how data flows through these systems, where it’s stored, or how it can be used. And in industries like aviation and defense, those distinctions matter.
A lot.
AI Isn’t the Foundation. Architecture Is.
One of the points I emphasized during the panel was something I believe strongly. AI only works if the system underneath it is designed correctly.
Technology operates in layers.
At the bottom is architecture, the system that connects transactions, data, workflows, and records across the organization.
Above that are operational workflows that connect quoting, sourcing, inventory, finance, compliance, and repairs. And above those layers sits intelligence.
AI.
But AI can’t fix broken architecture. If your data is scattered across spreadsheets, emails, disconnected tools, and manual processes, AI won’t magically organize it.
Architecture comes first.
Intelligence comes after.
When the foundation is correct, AI becomes incredibly powerful. When it isn’t, AI simply amplifies chaos.
What Day One Really Showed
The biggest takeaway from day one at PB Expo wasn’t technology.
It was curiosity.
People want to understand what’s happening. They want to know which tools are real and which are hype. They want to see how technology can actually improve the way their businesses operate.
And they want someone to help translate complex ideas into practical understanding. That’s a good sign for the industry. Because curiosity is always the first step toward progress.
Looking Ahead to Day Two
Events like PB Expo remind me why aviation is such an interesting industry to work in.
You see innovation happening. You hear new ideas forming in real time.
You reconnect with people who care deeply about improving how this industry operates. Day one delivered all of that.
And if the conversations so far are any indication, day two should be just as interesting.
I’m looking forward to it.
PS. Thank you again to PartsBase Inc., PBExpo, Robert Hammond for the vision, and the many people that made this day happen including Rebecca C. Longo, and my fellow panelists Brandon Watson, Lonni Kieffer, Libby Holder, and Jary Carter, all for their role in shaping the future and their insights from earlier today.
