Maritime firms pilot AI faster than governance can keep up, report says

Only 23% say their organisations are actively training staff to use it.

The maritime industry is embracing artificial intelligence (AI) faster than it can build the structures to manage it, according to a new report by Marcura and Thetius.

The report found that 82% of respondents believe AI can improve efficiency, but only 23% say their organisations are actively training staff to use it.

The gap widens further at the implementation stage, it said. Whilst 81% of companies are piloting AI solutions, just 11% have established the governance and policies needed to scale them beyond initial trials.

Despite the execution gap, the survey found strong consensus around specific use cases, particularly reducing manual, document-heavy work such as charter party analysis, voyage instruction generation, and back-office documentation.

On oversight, two-thirds of respondents expressed concern that overreliance on AI could weaken critical skills and judgment.

Around 70% said AI should recommend actions whilst humans retain final decision-making authority, reflecting a "human-in-the-loop" preference across the sector.