Splash247: Deloitte urges carriers to embed AI across operations to unlock value

Published by Splash247

Container shipping companies need to move beyond isolated artificial intelligence pilots and embed AI into their operating models if they are to realise meaningful competitive advantages, according to a new report from consultancy Deloitte.

In its latest point of view paper, Driving AI Value Creation in Container Shipping, Deloitte argues that while AI is attracting significant attention across the sector, many initiatives remain disconnected from core business processes and struggle to deliver sustainable results.

The report comes as ocean carriers grapple with increasingly volatile market conditions, geopolitical disruptions, changing trade patterns, cyber threats and growing customer expectations around service reliability and responsiveness.

“Simply adopting AI will not put ocean carriers ahead of the competition,” Deloitte said. “AI creates value when it is tied to strategic priorities and embedded in a target operating model with clear ownership, robust governance, trusted data and repeatable operational workflows.”

According to Deloitte, the greatest benefits emerge when AI is integrated directly into decision-making across commercial, network, asset management and operational functions rather than deployed as standalone tools.

The consultancy outlines a five-level AI maturity model that charts a path from ad hoc experimentation to what it terms the “agentic ocean carrier” — an organisation where AI supports decision-making throughout the carrier value chain while remaining subject to human oversight and governance.

Potential applications span customer service, pricing, demand forecasting and exception management, as well as predictive maintenance, container repositioning, emissions tracking and lifecycle asset management.

On the network side, Deloitte highlights dynamic routing, disruption monitoring, cyber threat detection and risk-aware planning as areas where AI can improve responsiveness and resilience. Operational use cases include AI-assisted scheduling, stowage planning, port call optimisation and control tower functions.

The report stresses that organisational structure will be critical to success. Larger global carriers may require centralised AI teams to ensure standardisation and governance, while niche operators could benefit from more decentralised approaches that allow faster local decision-making.

Deloitte argues that carriers should focus first on strategy, governance and ownership before selecting technologies.

“AI will only become a competitive advantage for ocean carriers when it is scaled as an enterprise capability, not treated as a collection of isolated use cases,” said Tobias Koppe, partner for technology strategy and transformation at Deloitte.

With volatility becoming a structural feature of container shipping, Deloitte believes AI is increasingly shifting from an innovation project to a core operational capability.