Two maritime conferences, one city, and two perspectives on shipping's future. Nick reports from Shipping UK, where geopolitics, resilience and digital investment dominated. Raal brings insights from Demystifying AI in Maritime, exploring trust, governance and seafarer wellbeing. Together, they examine the decisions maritime leaders can no longer afford to postpone.

CHAPTERS

• 00:00 Two conferences, one city: What you missed
• 01:12 Shipping UK: Geopolitics and national security
• 09:51 Resilience, decarbonisation and the true cost of shipping
• 14:01 Digital ROI: Measuring the return on technology investment
• 23:05 Demystifying AI in Maritime: From potential to practical application
• 27:47 The verification tax and AI's trust problem
• 30:24 Real-world AI applications and emerging risks
• 40:37 AI in the boardroom: Investment, accountability and people
• 50:31 Seafarers, shadow AI and the STEER project
• 55:14 AI bias and the importance of critical thinking

Nick and Raal compare notes from Shipping UK, hosted by the UK Chamber of Shipping, and Demystifying AI in Maritime, organised by Intent Communications. From national security to artificial intelligence, both events raised difficult questions about how shipping prepares for an increasingly uncertain future.

At Shipping UK, geopolitical risk dominated the conversation. A sobering keynote from Major General Paul Maynard highlighted the growing importance of commercial shipping to national security and the possibility that the UK may need to draw upon maritime expertise in a future conflict. But after decades of limited government investment in commercial maritime capabilities, is the industry equipped to respond?

The discussion turns to resilience and an uncomfortable economic reality: shipping may need to become more expensive. Building redundancy into supply chains, preparing for disruption and funding decarbonisation all require investment.

On a more practical note, Nick shares insights from his panel on digital return on investment. New benchmarking data reveals a significant jump in spending on AI and automation, while conventional IT budgets are being squeezed.

Across London, Raal attended Demystifying AI in Maritime, where the conversation has matured from excitement about AI's capabilities to more fundamental questions of trust and accountability.

Raal shares practical examples, including AI-powered food waste monitoring on cruise ships, alongside emerging threats from fraudulent certification, cyberattacks and information overload. A discussion with ABS also challenges the assumption that giving AI more context necessarily produces better answers.

The conversation then moves into the boardroom. How should directors evaluate AI investments when the technology is evolving faster than conventional governance processes? Finally, attention turns to seafarers, who are already adopting AI tools regardless of whether their employers have formal strategies in place.

EPISODE PARTNER

This episode is sponsored by GTT Marine.

Every integration RFP in shipping asks for a single source of truth. Almost no fleet actually wants one in practice.

Why? Because, as one operator told the team at Thetius, the moment you force everything into one platform, you risk sacrificing best-in-class functionality.

The great integration, the new Thetius and GTT Marine report, makes the case for something more achievable.

A consistent view across the systems your teams already trust. Recommended reading for anyone running an integration RFP.

Download it here.

Nick and Raal explore how LLM-native apps could reshape maritime workflows, why shipping companies are struggling to define the modern CTO role, and what CCTV, digital identity and maritime single windows reveal about interoperability.

CHAPTERS

• 03:40 MCPs, LLMs and the future of maritime transactions
• 14:52 When maritime standards meet the wider technology ecosystem
• 18:30 Shipping’s “unicorn” CTO problem
• 25:44 AI-powered CCTV arrives on board
• 30:15 Surveillance, privacy and the social contract
• 36:53 The Hawthorne effect and monitoring crew behaviour
• 39:29 Why the Maritime Single Window still isn’t truly interoperable
• 49:11 AI agents, digital identity and converging workflows
• 52:14 Why all of this lands on the CTO’s desk
• 57:02 Strategic choices, resilience and avoiding technology drift

The episode opens with Nick testing Princess Cruises’ new ChatGPT integration and asking what happens when the browser stops being the default interface to digital services.

That leads into shipping’s search for increasingly improbable technology leaders: CTOs expected to understand cloud infrastructure, cyber security, AI, data, vendors, transformation and the operational realities of ships. Nick and Raal consider whether companies need deep maritime experience, deep technology expertise, or teams deliberately designed to combine both.

The discussion then moves on board, where AI-enabled CCTV promises better safety analysis, automated evidence and reduced administrative workload while raising difficult questions around privacy, crew acceptance and surveillance.

Finally, they examine the Maritime Single Window, seafarer identity and certification as examples of a wider interoperability problem. Digital systems may be individually compliant yet still fail to work together.

Tickets are still available for the Digital Ship Summit in Athens. Join maritime IT leaders for practical discussion around the technology choices shaping the fleet.

EPISODE PARTNER

This episode is sponsored by Insight.

Most organisations invest in preventing a cyber incident. Fewer can say, with confidence, how they'd keep operating on the day one happens.

Insight and SmartSea build resilience so an incident is a disruption, not a shutdown — connecting technology, people and operational workflows so critical decisions can still be made even when a single system is compromised.

Because resilience isn't only about stopping attacks. It's about keeping the business moving when one gets through.

Future-proof your digital defences with Insight.

This week, Nick and Raal examine how geopolitical disruption is exposing hidden dependencies across shipping: from helium shortages and future-fuel investment choices to soaring freight markets and cyber risk. They also trace the global supply chain behind a Greggs sausage roll, revealing how deeply everyday life depends on maritime trade.

CHAPTERS

• 01:03 Helium shortages and an unexpected shipping dependency
• 03:35 Qatar, Hormuz and the global helium supply chain
• 08:40 Shipping’s difficult alternative-fuel investment choices
• 15:20 What the newbuild engine mix says about 2050
• 19:00 Ammonia safety and the long road to fuel adoption
• 24:25 Could alternative fuels reshape tramp shipping?
• 40:19 The sea miles behind sausage rolls

Nick opens with one of shipping’s less obvious supply-chain vulnerabilities: helium. Its role in MRI scanners, semiconductor production and aerospace makes disruption to Qatari supply more consequential than the commodity’s profile might suggest.

Raal then turns to study published by the Global Centre for Maritime Decarbonisation (GCMD) and Boston Consulting Group on shipping’s fuel transition and the decisions being embedded in today’s newbuild orderbook. The pair discuss the economics of conventional fuels, LNG, methanol, ammonia and onboard carbon capture, and why carbon pricing, hydrogen costs, bunkering availability and safety requirements make a 25-year investment decision exceptionally difficult.

That uncertainty raises a bigger operational question. If future fuels are available only along selected corridors and port networks, could shipping become less flexible? Nick considers whether tighter dependence on known bunkering locations could constrain tramp operations and encourage more fixed trading patterns, while Raal points to combination carriers as an example of how the industry can extract more efficiency from established routes.

Nick brings that global system down to the scale of a single Greggs sausage roll, tracing ingredients and inputs across Canada, Brazil, Indonesia, Vietnam, China, India, Morocco, Ukraine and the US.

The episode closes with a more immediate operational concern: a cluster of reported cyber incidents involving tankers and gas carriers. With allegations involving cargo-monitoring and control systems rather than only conventional IT or navigation, Nick and Raal discuss why cyber resilience is increasingly a safety and fleet-management issue, not simply an information-security problem.

EPISODER PARTNER

This episode is sponsored by Insight.

Fleet IT shouldn't mean a constant cycle of hardware refreshes, scattered support contracts, and capital tied up in kit that's hard to maintain.

It's the same discipline behind Insight's day-in-the-life device management on the Aroya refit — every one of 650-plus onboard devices tracked, maintained and accounted for across its lifecycle, on schedule and within budget.

Insight's Ship-to-Shore IT Asset Management brings that same model fleet-wide, modernising onboard technology without upfront capital spend — shifting fleet IT from a lump CapEx cost to a predictable service.

It's a smarter way to run fleet IT — freeing your teams to focus on operations, not infrastructure.

Simplify your fleet IT with Insight.

This week, Nick and Raal ask whether bunker suppliers could become an unlikely force for crew welfare, examine why the world map may finally change, and explore South Korea’s bet on sovereign AI. They also unpack mounting AI safety concerns before ending with shipping’s newest minimal-techno artist: Handysize.

CHAPTERS

• 01:32 Could bad crew welfare cost shipowners their bunkers?
• 07:22 Why maritime suppliers may have more leverage than we think
• 11:36 Connecting crew performance, maintenance and procurement data
• 14:57 Why doesn’t better training affect insurance premiums?
• 19:25 Can maritime risk data drive prevention, not just pricing?
• 21:33 The end of the Mercator map?
• 30:42 South Korea’s plan to make AI a public utility
• 43:20 AI insiders sound the alarm over the race to superintelligence
• 52:01 Would AI regulation protect incumbents?
• 01:01:17 Shipping gets a techno artist: Handysize and 14 Knots

The episode opens with an unusual proposal for tackling one of shipping’s most persistent welfare problems: what if suppliers simply refused to do business with operators that mistreat or fail to pay their crews?

Raal highlights Suzun Marine Fuels’ move to include crew-welfare provisions in bunker contracts, allowing it to refuse or cancel supply where operators have been reported over issues including unpaid wages, poor conditions, forced labour or modern slavery.

That leads to a wider discussion about the overlooked influence of maritime suppliers and how unpaid wages can be used as a signal for financial distress at the organisation-level.

From there, they turn to P&I and loss prevention, asking why investment in crew competency and training is still so weakly connected to the way maritime risk is priced.

From there, Nick gives a brief history of the Mercator map and its proposed replacement: The Equal Earth projection.

The second half moves into AI. South Korea’s plans for a sovereign, widely available generative-AI capability prompt a discussion about what happens when AI starts to look less like a software subscription and more like national infrastructure.

That optimism is followed by the darker side of the AI race. Raal tracks a rapid sequence of resignations, safety warnings and calls for greater oversight from researchers and industry leaders.

They finish on a less apocalyptic note with former Shipfix co-founder Antoine Grisset’s return to electronic music as Handysize, including his debut track 14 Knots, dedicated to women at sea.

You can support Handysize and women in maritime here:

EPISODE PARTNER

This episode is sponsored by OneOcean

Weather has always shaped shipping. But what happens when conditions become more extreme, less predictable, and the consequences start reaching far beyond the voyage plan?

On 29 September, Digital Ship Media and OneOcean are bringing together senior maritime leaders to explore what that means in practice - from vessel performance, cargo and fuel consumption to schedules, crew wellbeing and commercial decisions.

You’ll hear from Capt. Harpreet Singh, COO of Suisse Atlantique, and Peter Turner from OneOcean, in a discussion moderated by Nick.

Register here and join the discussion on 29 September.

Nick returns from SMM Hamburg with a read on where maritime innovation is actually moving: wind propulsion, nuclear, AI, class and new technology hubs. Raal then digs into digital judgement, conflicting data sources and the return of spreadsheets thanks to AI, before the episode ends with a reminder of shipping’s extraordinary role in everyday abundance.

CHAPTERS

• 01:07 How SMM is changing
• 03:21 The Thetius Top 150
• 07:52 Wind propulsion goes mainstream
• 12:39 Maritime AI before the AI boom
• 16:27 Meet the “meat proxy”
• 17:39 Class as an innovation enabler
• 28:25 What people at SMM really think comes next
• 32:03 Shipping’s messy, contextual data problem
• 35:12 Who owns the authoritative version of reality?
• 37:03 Moving decisions closer to the frontline
• 41:32 Critical thinking becomes digital judgement
• 43:16 Are spreadsheets making a comeback?
• 47:22 Ordinary abundance
• 50:13 Pineapples, spices and what shipping lets us take for granted

Nick is back from SMM Hamburg, where the exhibition increasingly looks less like a showcase for engines and heavy equipment alone and more like a cross-section of shipping’s technological transition. Using the newly launched Thetius Top 150 as a lens, he picks out several signals from the week: nuclear propulsion moving towards a credible adoption pathway, wind-assisted propulsion shifting decisively from demonstration to commercial scale, and classification societies becoming important enablers rather than inadvertent bottlenecks for new technology.

Although maritime has been applying machine learning, computer vision and predictive systems for years, much of the industry remains cautious about the current generative AI boom. Nick’s conversations at SMM underline the contradiction nicely: almost everyone thinks AI matters, but nobody wants to be the person predicting AI.

That leads into a broader discussion about shipping’s increasingly connected data environment. As vessel, port, customs and operational systems exchange more information, the challenge is no longer simply collecting data. It is deciding which source deserves authority when those systems disagree.

This has one unexpected consequence of generative AI: the possible return of the spreadsheet. Tools that once required specialist software or analyst support can increasingly be built and interrogated quickly, although data governance and validation remain significant constraints.

The episode closes with a reminder of the once-extraordinary luxuries that shipping now enables us to take for granted as everyday essentials.

EPISODE PARTNER

This episode of UnDocked is brought to you by GTT Marine.

Every integration RFP in shipping asks for "a single source of truth". Almost no fleet actually wants one in practice. Why? Because, as one operator told the team at Thetius, the moment you force everything onto one platform you risk sacrificing best-in-class functionality.

The Great Integration, the new Thetius and GTT Marine report, makes the case for something more achievable — a consistent view across the systems your teams already trust. Recommended listening for anyone running an integration RFP.

Download it today.

Steve Hemmings joins Nick and Raal to examine why maritime IT maturity still lags other sectors, what shipping can learn from cruise and banking, and why cyber resilience, asset visibility, data architecture and change management matter. They also explore AI, legacy systems and the organisational foundations needed for meaningful digital transformation.

CHAPTERS

• 00:27 Introducing Steve Hemmings
• 02:05 Why maritime needs to take IT more seriously
• 03:45 Insight’s evolution from hardware to transformation
• 10:34 Lessons from banking and open standards
• 18:38 What a mature maritime IT organisation looks like
• 22:52 Building an accurate vessel IT asset inventory
• 27:58 Turning maritime data into business value
• 32:58 What cargo shipping can learn from cruise
• 43:17 AI adoption and building a culture of innovation
• 45:51 The human side of technology transformation
• 50:40 Legacy platforms, AI and the future architecture

The episode opens with a fundamental question: why does maritime still struggle to treat IT as a strategic capability rather than a support function? Steven Hemmings, Client CTO for Insight’s EMEA maritime team, explains how Insight moved from supplying technology into transformation and integration work, including its experience supporting the AROYA project with Columbia Group.

The conversation then turns to what maritime can learn from other sectors. Drawing on his early career at the Bank of England, Steve argues that banking’s progress on standards depended as much on relationships, behaviour and sustained dialogue as it did on technology.

Cruise provides a useful reference point.

Better onboard infrastructure, stronger connectivity and clear revenue incentives have pushed cruise operators towards more mature digital environments. Those foundations matter increasingly for cargo shipping too, particularly as IT and operational technology converge and cyber exposure grows.

The discussion closes on two closely related challenges: AI and people. Legacy platforms may constrain what shipping companies can do next, but replacing everything at once is rarely realistic. Building around existing systems, creating stronger data foundations and introducing new capabilities incrementally may offer a more practical route.

EPISODE PARTNER

This episode is partnered with Insight, in partnership with SmartSea.

The most resilient fleets don't wait for a cyber incident to start thinking about security — they design it from day one.

Under NIS2, maritime is classed as essential infrastructure, and IMO's cyber risk rules already require security to be built into a vessel's Safety Management System.

Insight and SmartSea help operators meet both by embedding cyber resilience directly into everyday operational workflows — so compliance isn't a separate project, it's how the fleet already works.

Because the strongest fleets are resilient by design, not by reaction.

Future-proof your digital defences with Insight and SmartSea.

This week, Nick and Raal examine what happens when maritime technology moves faster than the legal frameworks around it, from remote ship control and pollution liability to cyber risk and seaworthiness.

CHAPTERS

• 00:23 Best-of-breed software and the importance of good data
• 04:51 Maritime fragmentation, taxonomy and interoperability
• 08:08 Why older ships can be easier to integrate
• 10:26 Fleet interoperability and the economics of maritime SaaS
• 14:27 Who pays when an autonomous tanker spills oil?
• 21:42 Masters, fatigue and remote pilotage
• 28:03 Search and rescue, COLREGs and autonomous ships
• 31:15 Cyber risk, software updates and seaworthiness
• 38:04 Anglo-Eastern’s approach to fleet-wide cyber security
• 44:52 AI, cyber attacks and a changing threat landscape
• 49:40 Wilson Sons’ long-term technology investment strategy
• 55:53 SMM, the Digital Ship Summit and the Thetius Top 150

The episode opens with Nick reflecting on a webinar with GTT Marine and Dorian LPG examining one of shipping technology’s recurring questions: whether owners should consolidate around a single platform or assemble a best-of-breed technology stack.

That leads into the structural fragmentation of shipping itself. Different vessels, vendors, ranks, departments and even fleets can describe the same things differently, making interoperability as much an organisational problem as a technical one.

The main discussion turns to autonomous and remotely operated ships, prompted by the question of who would be liable for pollution when control no longer sits conventionally on board. From there, the legal questions multiply.

• Who is the master when control is divided between people and autonomous systems?
• How do hours-of-rest rules apply to shore-based operators? Does a pilot still need to board?
• What happens to search-and-rescue obligations on an unmanned vessel?
• And which jurisdiction governs somebody controlling a ship from another country?

Cyber risk brings the same tension into seaworthiness. The discussion considers whether poor cyber risk management could ultimately call a vessel’s seaworthiness into question, and what happens when software updates can materially alter how a ship performs after it has sailed.

Anglo-Eastern’s work with CyberOwl provides a more immediate operational example: rather than replacing the different systems across a large third-party-managed fleet, the aim is to create a consistent cyber-risk layer capable of working with the infrastructure already on board.

EPISODE PARTNER

This episode is sponsored by Insight, in partnership with SmartSea.

Every voyage means thousands of small decisions — on fuel burn, maintenance timing, emissions, and cost. Made well, they compound. Made blind, they compound too.

Insight and SmartSea help operators bring route optimisation and predictive maintenance into everyday operations through one connected digital environment — turning sustainability and efficiency from a separate initiative into simply how the fleet performs, voyage after voyage.

Because the best gains aren't the ones you chase once. They're the ones built into how you already operate.

Take the next step with Insight.

Nick Chubb and Raal Harris examine how extreme heat is reshaping trade, from Rhine water levels and Panama Canal draught limits to pressure on energy systems. They also explore Drift Energy’s hydrogen-generating sailing vessels, Singapore’s Pier 71 startup programme, and the EU’s emerging rules on AI transparency and human oversight.

CHAPTERS

• 04:18 Rhine water levels and inland shipping
• 07:04 Panama Canal drought and draught restrictions
• 10:17 Drift Energy and green hydrogen at sea
• 18:39 Maritime innovation and the ocean economy
• 23:18 Singapore’s Pier 71 startup programme
• 30:52 The gap between research and commercialisation
• 35:14 The EU AI Act and transparency requirements
• 45:08 AI disclosure, watermarking and content quality
• 51:59 Human oversight and the future of knowledge work

The episode begins with extreme heat and an unlikely supply-chain indicator: Nick talks about its direct maritime consequences, with exceptionally low water levels at Kaub restricting cargo capacity on the Rhine and drought reducing permissible draughts through the Panama Canal.

The conversation then moves from climate impacts to potential solutions. Raal introduces Drift Energy’s concept for sailing vessels that generate electricity at sea and convert it onboard into green hydrogen.

The discussion broadens into tidal power, onboard carbon processing and the wider ocean economy, asking whether ships can become energy-producing assets rather than simply consumers of cleaner fuels.

Attention then turns to Singapore’s Pier 71 programme and what its alumni suggest about the value of sustained, government-backed maritime innovation.

Nick and Raal contrast that model with the persistent difficulty of moving promising technologies from research funding into viable commercial businesses, particularly in the UK and Europe.

The episode closes with the EU’s developing approach to AI transparency. They examine watermarking, disclosure obligations, human oversight and the implications for companies using generative AI professionally. The central question is less whether AI was involved than whether the finished work is accurate, useful and properly scrutinised.

EPISODE PARTNER

This episode is sponsored by Insight, in partnership with SmartSea.

Getting new technology onto one ship is an achievement. Getting every ship the same benefit is where most digital transformation programs lose momentum.

On the Aroya refit, Insight delivered the largest cruise IT transformation in EMEA — on schedule, in 11 months, across 33-plus workstreams — built on a single connected architecture designed to be repeated on the next vessel, not rebuilt from scratch.

That's the model Insight and SmartSea bring to fleet-wide rollouts: pilot once, deploy consistently, and cut the time and cost of getting every vessel to the same standard.

Because transformation only counts once it reaches the whole fleet.

Start your digital transformation journey with Insight.