Why we started AISBA.ai after Daytona

Where this started

In September, more than 150 business aviation leaders spent three days on Embry-Riddle's Daytona Beach campus for the inaugural AI Symposium for Business Aviation. Charter operators, brokers, FBOs, maintenance organizations, corporate flight departments, manufacturers, fuel companies and technology providers were in the room, along with faculty and students. Proceeds support scholarships through the National Air Transportation Foundation.

What stayed with us, though, was the hallway talk. Everyone was experimenting, and few wanted to say in public what had failed. When a conversation did get useful, it hit the same wall every time: there was nowhere to continue it, and no place to compare notes year-round with people who understand both the technology and the business.

Everyone in business aviation is being sold AI right now. Very few people will tell you, in writing, what worked in their operation, what it cost, and what broke. A LinkedIn post is public, so it gets polished. A phone call to a friend is candid, but it reaches one person and leaves nothing behind for the next one with the same question. That candor needs a room with a door.

aisba.ai is meant to be that room. It's a members-only forum for the people who were in Daytona and for peers across the industry who should have been.

What's inside

There are ten discussion spaces, laid out along the org chart from the charter desk to the hangar to the back office, so you can ask where the people who have done the work are already reading:

• Introductions: who you are, what you fly or sell, and what you are trying to figure out with AI.
• Charter Sales & Quoting: quoting speed, pricing, lead handling, CRM and any AI tool that touches revenue.
• Flight Ops & Dispatch: scheduling, trip planning, crew, weather, NOTAMs and day-of-ops work.
• Maintenance & MRO: predictive maintenance, parts, logbooks, inspections and what AI catches in practice.
• Safety & Compliance: SMS, audits, Part 135 and Part 91 questions, and the regulatory side of using AI.
• Finance & Back Office: invoicing, payments, accounting, contracts and admin automation.
• Customer Experience: passenger communication, concierge, FBO service and personalization.
• Tools & Vendors: candid reviews and comparisons of specific products, with real experiences and numbers.
• Show & Tell: something you built or automated, with the workflow and the result.
• Lounge: industry news, conferences, hiring, and whatever doesn't fit elsewhere.

Questions can be marked answered, threads carry tags, and there is full-text search. We want a good answer to still be findable in month six instead of buried under a feed.

There is also an AI tools directory, which lists more than two dozen tools ranked only by how many members use them. Sponsors get no placement in it. Vendors may suggest their own products; when they do, the listing is labeled "Suggested by the vendor" so you know what you're looking at.

Vendors and consultants are welcome as people rather than as marketing accounts. They disclose their affiliation on their profile, answer questions in their area of expertise, and don't pitch or DM-prospect members. Members can ask hard questions about products, and we think that is healthy for everyone, vendors included.

The rules, and who pays for it

Every member agrees to a short code of conduct when they apply. It has seven rules, and all of them are about trust. The two that matter most are that members use their real name and real company, and that what is shared here stays here: no screenshots, forwarding or quoting outside the community without the author's permission. That is what makes it possible to be candid about vendors, pricing and mistakes. The same goes the other way. No customer data and nothing under NDA, so anonymize your examples.

Membership is free. There is no paid tier and nothing gated behind payment. Hosting, email and the hours it takes to run a community do cost money, and sponsors cover that in exchange for tasteful recognition and nothing else. They don't get member lists or emails, the ability to message members, influence over moderation, or any say in what gets discussed about their products. Members always know what is sponsored. If that independence slipped, a sponsor's presence here wouldn't be worth much to anyone.

AISBA is the AI Symposium for Business Aviation, created by Tuvoli, NATA and Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's David B. O'Maley College of Business. The community is run by the AISBA team with member moderators. The about page has more on who we are and what we store.

How to join

If you work in or around business aviation, we'd like you in the room. That includes operators, brokers, FBOs, MROs, flight departments, aircraft management companies, OEMs, and the people who build software for them. The application takes two minutes and asks for your name, company, role, and what you hope to learn or share. A person reads every application, usually within two business days. Once you're in, introduce yourself, and invite the peers you wish had been in Daytona.

The founding cohort is forming now, while the norms are still being written. Bring what you learned in Daytona and we'll keep the conversation going until AISBA 2027.

Request to join, or look inside first.