There are a great deal of influence on many fields of society as a result of the new round of technological revolution and industrial revolution centered on artificial intelligence. All the aerospace powers have conducted many useful experiments and explorations in the combination of artificial intelligence and aerodynamics. The development history and status quo of artificial intelligence technology are reviewed in this paper, the applications of artificial intelligence in wind tunnel test, numerical calculation and flight test are discussed in the background of big data era, the role of artificial intelligence in assisting mass aerodynamic data analysis and knowledge discovery is analyzed in detail, the application values of artificial intelligence in aerodynamic modeling and advanced aircraft design are investigated, the future development direction and challenges of combination of artificial intelligence and aerodynamics are prospected.