Maritime may have a reputation for being slow to embrace change, but once the ‘big ship’ is turning towards new horizons it often moves full speed ahead. Bjørn Åge Hjøllo, NAVTOR’s Chief Sustainability Officer, argues that AI, currently transforming business on land, could come to define the future of shipping. And he’s already working on projects that provide the proof. If shipping is to stand any chance of meeting its ambitious climate targets—net zero by 2050, not to mention individual commercial goals—then progress must accelerate. We need greater efficiency, greater predictability, and greater control. ASAP. There is, quite frankly, no time to waste.
Here at NAVTOR, we’re up and running on a whole raft of innovations to help enable the change we all want to see. And AI is at the centre of developments.
### Easy does it
In our mission to make life easier for the 18,000+ vessels we serve in the world fleet, we’ve been bringing breakthrough digital innovations to the industry since 2011. Everything we do—from e-Navigation solutions to Performance technology to advanced Digital Logbooks—is focused on cutting workloads, empowering better decisions, and delivering tangible business benefits.
An often-overlooked beauty of these innovations is their integration. Everything is connected on one unique digital ecosystem, allowing a seamless stream of shared critical data across vessels, fleets, and entire organisations. This provides insight and control, but it also provides the perfect foundation for AI to work its magic. Especially when developed within expert stakeholder partnerships.
### 20% fuel savings
AI in isolation remains somewhat of an unknown quantity. But when developed on a solid platform by expert partners with intimate knowledge of the challenges an industry faces—such as evolving regulatory frameworks or safety considerations—it can be harnessed to work wonders.
This is perfectly encapsulated by one of our main, current innovation projects, GASS (Green AI for Sustainable Shipping). This has the potential to cut energy consumption, and therefore fuel costs and emissions, on your vessels by around 20%. That’s any vessel, sailing any long route. One fifth less fuel, which, as you’ll agree, is a giant step towards sustainability.
### World firsts
How? Well, you can find out all about it here. But, in short, it combines digital twin technology (utilising historical and ongoing data) with advanced AI algorithms to enable dynamic optimisation of performance on any vessel, in real-time. When the services launch next year, including a main engine digital twin, this will be a world first. And it’s not the only one.
We’ve also just completed the world’s very first digital port call as part of the DYNAPORT project. As with GASS, this utilises the latest digital tech, in a partnership model, to help vessels, in cooperation with ports, optimise speed across entire voyages and digitise port calls with a seamless transfer of all relevant data. The first such call was successfully tested in July this year in Rotterdam.
Again, the impact on costs and energy efficiency here are potentially breathtaking, not to mention the standardisation of processes and ease of compliance. This could be, like GASS, an industry gamechanger.
### Setting course for tomorrow
At NAVTOR, we see AI as an opportunity, not a threat, as demonstrated by the fact we’re also innovating solutions such as an AI chat robot for customer support, as well as AI-enabled weather routing optimisation for further safety, efficiency, and environmental gains.
The potential here is enormous, and, given the scale of the challenges our industry faces, that’s very good news indeed. Progress on sustainability goals has been meaningful, but too slow so far. AI has the power to accelerate developments and put us all back on track.
GASS, DYNAPORT, and other innovation projects like them have key roles to play. Please do get in touch if you’d like to find out more.
www.navtor.com