The maritime sector keeps talking enthusiastically about Artificial Intelligence (AI). But what is it really? In this article we look at what is the role of technology in the maritime sector at this moment and what does it mean for the future. 

With a recent focus on AI, it has seen many industries make huge steps forward whilst creating cause for concern given that it is still a relatively new form of technology. The benefits of leveraging technology in shipping have the power to impact your predictive capabilities and make your operations more efficient. Some implementations include real-time analytics, improved scheduling, automated processes, and more. 

It is argued by some that the term "Artificial Intelligence" is often misused because a lot of tools are not intelligent at all. Thus, if you use genuine AI in your maritime projects, the possibilities and benefits are huge which then begs the question; which ones are intelligent?

Many maritime companies say that they are “completely digital”. However, this often means that hundreds of Word, Excel and PDF documents with thousands of sentences have been drawn up around a project. The project team will then diligently check the accuracy of the information and bring structure in this jumble of documents which often results in costly mistakes, because humans are not up to such a task. It all comes down to consistency and when it comes to humans, a person can learn an act very well based on various indicators; that is called biological neural learning. However, we are not able to do that consistently well, especially not when it concerns thousands of sources of information at the same time. The human brain is also not apt to visualising dozens of cross-connections. That is why specifications often contain costly errors. Now is the time for the maritime sector to deploy mastermind AI and Van der Leun China is consistently looking at ways in which we can integrate AI into our operations and services. 

Tarry Singh, a top artificial intelligent (AI) expert, when asked, "How is AI driving the economic growth of the maritime industry to its next stage of evolution?"

Commented:"AI may be an opportunity that shippers should be looking at very seriously. Maritime operations have been extremely optimized, but there is definitely that “last nautical mile” efficiencies such as vessel precision operations using various geographical data to exactly make ETAs/ETDs, fine-tuning container routing, and re-routing, fuel-consumption models that offer “Fuel Savings Guarantees.”

What if a tool could load data from maritime files into a database in a structured way in an instant and without errors? Well, a computer is also apt to perform an action well repeatedly, as long as it has been properly trained. For the maritime industry, it is able to understand the construction process, understands its jargon and even suggests improvements. And all of this can be displayed in a clever dashboard. Engineers then have more time to really use their respective talents and improve their data, based on accurate results. This service also makes working in the maritime sector more fun: it has become a real sparring partner for the maritime sector.”

Thus, the maritime industry can aim to move forward by identifying patterns through Machine Learning, become aware of and access "big data," train IT staff about Machine Learning, and more.  

We can not ignore the criticism of AI as it is true that, wherever there is change, fear comes into play.  There are pros and cons to everything, and AI is no different. Despite the benefits, the fear surrounding more intelligent solutions can often be a controversial topic. Today, there are still barriers to the widespread adoption of AI, and not just in the maritime industry. 

Globally some challenges need to be addressed and overcome before moving forward and implementing AI. In general, there are four key obstacles:
•    data integration
•    trust issues
•    time and energy limitations
•    shortage of talent on specific skills needed

One thing is for certain is that the future is exciting for our industry and we should continue to identify the areas where technology can help us whilst simultaneously ensuring that we approach this with caution.