PEOPLE TECH MARITIME explores the idea that the shipping industry can make progress with its goals of improving safety, decarbonisation, operational and commercial effectiveness and quality of life onboard, by focussing on improving the people-technology relationship.

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There are many aspects to the people-technology relationship in shipping, involving different people and different technologies. We can focus on the aspects where there is most potential for useful improvement. Many of these aspects are related.

 

Below are 16 areas involving people and technology discussed at our first two events in Athens and Bergen in Autumn 2025 - we expect to build on these discussions in our 2026 events.

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As People Technology Maritime, we support progress by helping industry professionals share advice and experiences about what works, supporting the creation of maps and indexes to make it more understandable, and encourage digital technology to be developed as components, so they become more manageable.

TECHNOLOGY MANAGEABLITY - here the 'people' are the IT department, who have to manage multiple complex digital technologies, including ensuring integrat-ability, maintainability, upgrade-ability, and that we can have systems which don't need to be replaced during the lifetime of the ship. Manageability is easier when we can see clearly what tools do (transparency).

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TECHNOLOGY INTEGRAT-ABILITY - the average vessel is thought to have between 40 and 60 different software components on its PCs. As software gets more and more pervasive in our daily working lives, it gets more important to have digital tools which can integrate well with each other, or may be able to integrate easily with tools we may introduce in future. Integration can be technically possible, but providers need to focus on it and technology buyers need to push for it.

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DIGITAL MATURITY - meaning making technology work for us better overall. Unless we are talking about full digital autonomy, this must ultimately mean technology which works well for people. 

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MODELLING AROUND USERS - the end result of all of this needs to be technology which tells us what we need to know at the right time, presents information in a way which aligns with our mental models about how things work, without failing, overwhelming us with information or distracting us. This last part is very hard work, often missed, but can be where most of the value is.

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CYBERSECURITY - this is not mainly about technology supporting people, but the opposite, how bad people can use our technology to create problems for us. The solution is a better people technology relationship which can stop people being duped into sharing login details or other threats, and supporting  people to better identify and fix problems when they happen. 

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ADVANCED TECHNOLOGIES - we have all seen the great promise from AI, and that is the point when the work starts. Experience seems to be showing that AI can provide big value in shipping, but it may be harder work than you expect, you need to be highly focussed on specific use cases, and there are risks involved. It helps if you break the technologies down into components to understand what they individually do, and see what has worked for others.

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DIGITAL INFRASTRUCTURE MANAGEMENT - shipping companies need reliable communications particularly between ship and shore, without paying more than they need to for it. They need digital systems which can manage the data and communications they need. It needs to be cybersecure. Providing this has historically been the biggest challenge for company IT departments, and it continues to be a major challenge. 

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DATA MANAGEMENT - shipping companies generate more and more data, particularly relating to decarbonisation (ship sensor data, emissions data). To make it useful, people will often need to manage it.

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DECARBONISATION - While much of maritime decarbonisation is about big asset purchase decisions, such as deciding to build a ship to run on an alternative fuel, about 30 per cent of maritime decarbonisation is about day to day decision making by people supported by digital tools. This includes decisions about routing and speed (voyage) and decisions about how the vessel is operated (generators, engines, energy saving devices). People use digital technology to support this decision making. 

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CREATING DIGITAL TRAINING MATERIALS - working in shipping involves a great deal of learning, and some of the learning is company specific. Digital tools can do a lot here, and their capability is increasing. It is also becoming easier to use AI to create training materials specific to your company, based on your company's existing procedures or other materials.

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HAVING CLEAR TECHNOLOGY VALUE PROPOSITIONS - digital technology can be expensive and the returns are not always obvious. But sometimes they can be, such as a software tool which enabled a company to reduce spending on crew travel by 17%.

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WORK CO-ORDINATION - day to day shipping company work is highly complex with tasks passed from one person or department to another. When this passing gets dropped, we get delays, costs, and safety risks if important tasks did not get done on time. In theory digital tools can do a great deal to support task co-ordination, but it has not happened yet due to the complexity of our working arrangements, and because it is done differently in every company. This may change.

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SITUATION AWARENESS - for most people in most jobs, the potential way digital technology can help them the most is supporting their situation awareness. What should they be aware of right now which would help them make a better decision, such as emerging risks, how something is changing, and what is going on? And how can digital tools provide this situation awareness? It may be that the critical insight is in someone's e-mail. Can digital technologies read these and pass insights to the right person?  

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OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES - companies create detailed procedures for how work should be done. Seafarers are expected to know procedures relevant to their role, and their knowledge is tested by inspectors. Some procedures can run to thousands of pages. Advanced technologies can help crew learn procedures (making training materials), or find an answer from the procedures faster.

 

ALIGNING IT AND OPERATIONS DEPARTMENTS - operations departments mainly want something which works; IT people want to explore new technologies and also have to fix things - how can there be a better understanding between the two?

 

ALIGNING TECHNOLOGY INVESTORS WITH SHIPPING COMPANY INTERESTS - technology investors may want to invest in a product which does one thing well and has a clear value case - shipping companies need a range of technologies to support all aspects of their business - how can they be better brought together?