Splash247: Can shipping avoid an existential tech shock?

Maritime digital operations must evolve if they are to survive the asteroid of wider customer expectations on transparency and technology use, write Intent Communications’ Namrata Nadkarni and Edward Parshotam.

Maritime is often accused of lagging behind other sectors when it comes to seizing the potential of digitalisation and harnessing the power of AI, with a recent Thetius report showing that 81% of maritime organisations are piloting AI but just 11% have policies and governance in place. While there may be a myriad of reasons for this, one of the most likely is a lack of an ‘asteroid moment’ that has really disrupted the industry.

While the music industry battled streaming, hotels were challenged by Airbnb, and physical retail adapted to the rise of e-commerce, maritime hasn’t yet faced an existential threat to the same extent.

Experts participating in Intent Communications’ ‘De-mystifying digitalisation and AI in maritime’ campaign have highlighted the importance of such an event to reshape thinking, align traditional operations with modern expectations and of course, provide the financial imperative to evolve or be consigned to the fate of the dinosaurs.

Shifting expectations

Shipping and the wider maritime world is already facing the threat of a volatile political landscape, littered with escalating tariffs and shifting access to trade routes and markets. Additionally, there has been a significant shift in customer expectations, with major retail businesses operating on thin margins increasingly demanding that maritime develops the data maturity to better facilitate just-in time delivery, for example. There’s also the battle for future talent – digital-first businesses and industries will be best equipped to appeal to digital natives entering the workforce.

Each of these aspects has the potential to act like an asteroid that could eradicate reliable trade flow, eliminate demand through in-house creation of BCO-led fleets and even limit our ability to safely crew vessels or harness the advantages of greener fuels that are more complex to operate.

Likely targets

At a closed-doors discussion in London as part of the campaign, a number of speakers pointed out that certain segments in maritime are more likely to feel the hit of an asteroid before others. In particular, the dry bulk market was seen to be lagging far behind passenger ships, with the latter harnessing WiFi connections to track passenger movement to enhance commercial opportunities for their onboard shops.

Similarly, the container sector is swimming in a sea of historic data that could be harnessed to deliver insights about manufacturing, consumer demand, route effectiveness and more – particularly when matched with other data sets that could outline regional trends. The IMO’s historic data, from GISIS and Equasis, was also identified as ripe for repurposing as a proprietary data lake, providing that the data cleaned to a high standard and continued to be updated reliably.

Inherent challenges

The evolution from digital dinosaur to tech wizards is not simple to achieve, particularly when it requires massive cultural change. Roundtable participants noted that in the maritime world, data is often seen as an after thought (assigning value to actions already performed) rather than a product in its own right that could guide strategy and generate revenue.

Many ship owners and operators are unwilling to share data for fear of losing commercial advantage, which in some cases means that they are reluctant to part with even general, non-commercial data. This could prove a barrier to unlocking new opportunities within AI and machine learning, which rely on pulling insights out of a variety of data sources.

There is also nervousness around upfront costs with investment into new technology alongside concerns around security risks when implementing new systems. While these concerns can’t be dismissed entirely, it’s worth noting that smart investment in correct technologies and cybersecurity systems will likely deliver a return that dwarfs the upfront cost. Additionally, there is potential revenue being sacrificed by this caution, with markets remaining untapped – which would wave a flag of welcome to external disruptors.

Seizing the future

Data and AI are so prevalent in industries around the world, that a collision with the asteroid of digital expectation is inevitable. While experts pointed out that in many cases, AI cannot deliver value as basic data management is not up to scratch and there is no one size fits all digital solution, a refusal to evolve our digital practices leaves us vulnerable to disruption.

Data standardisation, creating large data lakes as well as single sources of truth are all important baselines that companies must adopt. Data cannot remain an add on and must have appropriate resources assigned, which include software management, skilled workers, clear policies and of course, risk analysis. There must be a plan to use the data to achieve fixed goals and there must be agreements on what data should be shared to benefit the sector as a whole.

Simply put, we must decide if we want to remain dinosaurs or whether we pool our resources to change the path of the asteroid’s impact.