AI is changing aviation security. But the hardest problems have not disappeared; they have moved.
Advanced detection systems are improving consistency, throughput and coverage across airport security operations. In many environments, AI now resolves the majority of routine screening decisions with speed and reliability.
As a result, the human role is shifting in a fundamental way. Screeners are no longer making constant decisions. Instead, they are increasingly called upon only when the system is uncertain, when images are ambiguous, and when judgment is required precisely because the algorithm cannot reach confidence.
On the surface, this looks like an efficient division of labour. In practice, it creates a very different cognitive job. Long periods of low engagement, punctuated by high-consequence decision-making, place unique demands on attention, judgement, and resilience. The rhythm of the work changes. The psychological load changes, and the capabilities required to sustain performance over time are not the same as those needed when every bag demanded an active decision.
This white paper explores what happens to human performance when technology reshapes the work. Written by Dr Leanne Simpson, behavioural psychologist and Global Director of Training and Documentation at Smiths Detection, it draws on current research trials with the University of Exeter and insights from defence, aviation, healthcare and other safety-critical sectors. It focuses on the human side of Human and AI systems, and on the design choices that determine whether performance is strengthened or quietly eroded.
Inside the paper, you will explore:
- Why remote and centralised screening changes more than operating models, and how physical distance subtly alters context, accountability and judgement.
- The recruitment blind spot shared across much of the sector, and why some of the strongest threat-detection capabilities are being filtered out by traditional hiring practices.
- What miscalibrated trust in automation looks like in practice, and how human attention adapts when technology is right most of the time, but not always.
- The difference between compliance training and performance training, and why only one reliably holds up under pressure.
- Where fatigue really comes from in modern screening roles, and why standard break structures often fail to address the true cognitive load.
AI is raising the baseline capability of aviation security. This paper asks the harder question: is the human system keeping pace?