At a high-level industry gathering hosted at The Thief in Oslo, senior maritime leaders convened to examine the changing operational landscape driven by AI and automation. Titled “Harnessing AI & Automation for Smarter Fleets and a Smarter Future“, the evening featured presentations by Ernst Meyer, CEO of shipowner Torvald Klaveness, Gijsbert de Jong, Marine Chief Executive Nordics at Bureau Veritas, and Yarden Gross, CEO and Co-founder of Orca AI, followed by a panel discussion also featuring Anglo-Eastern CIO Torbjørn Dimblad and Christian Hall, Head of Digital Projects at Höegh Autoliners.
What emerged was not just a picture of accelerating digitalization but a structural shift in how maritime operations are organised and executed. AI, connectivity and intelligent systems are no longer just enhancing performance – they’re reshaping the very nature of work at sea and ashore.
Efficiency Matters More than Ever
In his keynote address, Meyer framed digitalisation as a strategic imperative, driven not only by performance goals but by regulatory and cost pressure.
“IMO has just agreed on a global carbon price mechanism that can triple the price of fuel by 2033/2034,” he said. “Inefficiencies like ballasting… coming too early to a port… that is about to change.”
Connectivity, he argued, is the essential enabler: “These vessels are operating… basically without internet. So with the launch of low orbit satellites… 2025 is maybe the first year where a seafarer can FaceTime with people at home… without stealing the data from the business that happens on board.”
With that infrastructure in place, AI becomes a true driver of value. “With data utilisation and AI you can create whatever value you want,” he added.
Crews Today…Are Spread Very, Very Thin
Yarden Gross presented hard evidence of AI in action, referencing the recent collision between the Solong and Stena Immaculate offshore Grimsby in the UK.
“By chance, Orca AI’s platform was installed on board another vessel anchored nearby… using thermal cameras with deep learning and detection… you can see how clearly everything looks [despite the thick fog conditions],” he said.
What makes this example so compelling is that the Orca AI platform captured a clear visual record of the incident, even in dense fog conditions beyond the capacity of human vision. It underscored a key theme of the event: that AI, particularly computer vision powered by deep learning, is already enhancing situational awareness in ways that were previously impossible – and doing so in real time.
Gross underscored the real-world strain on seafarers. “Crews today… are spread very, very thin on a lot of tasks… AI helps by filtering the noise and surfacing what actually matters.” On the long-term trajectory of autonomy, he observed: “It’s here to empower, not to replace… it will automate a lot of their tasks… but the purpose is to increase situational awareness.”
Design matters, too. “The AI is not providing you just with data. It is providing you the right insights that you need to know, at the right time.”
Nobody Exactly Knows What the AI Revolution Means
Representing the class society view, Gijsbert de Jong framed AI adoption as both inevitable and uncertain. “We are in the middle of an AI revolution,” he said. “And quite frankly I don’t think anybody exactly knows what that means so far – but we’re all trying to experiment with it.”
While recognizing the pace of change, de Jong emphasized that regulation around autonomy remains fragmented and largely national. “Today we see many vessels which have some degree of autonomous technology… how is that going to be regulated? The honest answer today is we can’t – because we don’t know how to do it.”
His conclusion was blunt, and formed the key takeaway of the evening: “Digital has become a strategic imperative for our industry. It’s not an optional thing anymore.”
We Learned the Hard Way
From the operator side, Torbjørn Dimblad spoke candidly about the challenges of scaling innovation across a large fleet. “We have 752 vessels… about 39,000 seafarers on the books… as we come up with new innovations, new introductions… it’s really about how do we ensure that we are able to train the crew in a good way.”
He recalled an early misstep: “We implemented a really cool, great system… and my honest thought was that this was just going to naturally get an uptick… it turned out to be absolutely not the case at all [without the full buy-in of the end-users].”
Dimblad also urged the audience not to ignore what’s happening with AI on land. “The biggest change coming for our industry is what’s going to happen on the shore… what AI agents are going to mean for shoreside work – that is going to change things [in a big way].”
We Do Stupid Things for a Very, Very Long Time
Returning to the stage during the panel, Meyer challenged conventional thinking about operational norms. “There is no link between what is required from a vessel today and the technologies that will dominate a vessel in the future.”
He offered a telling example: “A person is coming out with a launch boat, climbing into cargo holds… using his hands and fingers to say, ‘This tank is good, or I see a spot up there you need to clean.’ Think about how unnecessary that is.”
The barriers to change, he added, are not just technical – it’s behavioral. “We do stupid things for a very, very long time. And I think that inertia will become harder and harder to delay progress.”
In closing, Meyer offered a striking reflection on the new normal we’re entering. “AI is an empowerment tool, which perhaps sailors on board vessels for the first time in history are equipped with and able to meet. That has never happened before.”
Closing Thoughts
As the speakers made clear, AI is no longer an abstract concept or future aspiration – it is already embedded in real operations, driving measurable change. What lies ahead is not just further adoption but deeper integration. The clear consensus was the companies that succeed will be those that invest early in capability, connectivity and crew readiness – at sea and on shore.