Hellespont’s CEO on AI, cybersecurity and software

Phrixos Papachristidis, CEO of Hellespont Group thinks AI needs to be addressed in a people-first way, cybersecurity risks are underestimated, and the maritime digital ecosystem has become unmanageable - report from People Tech Maritime Hamburg

Phrixos Papachristidis, CEO and owner of shipping company Hellespont Group believes that the idea of AI replacing people is dangerously wrong. He also believes that industry does not take cybersecurity risks seriously enough, and the maritime digital ecosystem has become unmanageable and expensive. Above all, technology needs to be viewed in a people-first way.

He was speaking at People Tech Maritime in Hamburg in May.

From a CEO’s perspective, AI, cybersecurity and software are not abstract concepts, “they are board level concepts that determine safety, efficiency and resilience,” he said.

“None of these technologies will deliver value unless anchored in a simple truth, technology does not run ships, people run ships.”

“Our responsibility as leaders is to ensure that every digital tool, every algorithm, every platform, every integration, serve the people who operate our vessels, who manage our fleets, who keep global trade moving.”

“If we use technologies that empower people, we will build safer, more efficient and more resilient organisations. If we use technology to replace our people we will fail.”

“The future of maritime is not automated, it is augmented, and it is human.”

“Our most precious asset is the loyalty and professionalism of our people.”

Being competitive in shipping today is just as much about your people and the environment they work in, as it is about your choice of fuels and fleet renewal, he said.

Shipping companies need to find ways to empower people with technology, while improving and protecting systems and procedures. And it needs to be done in a way that helps people have more clarity in how they tackle the challenges of running ships today, he said.

Hellespont group runs a fleet of 23 vessels and manages crewing. It has been in business for over 80 years, owning, managing and operating merchant vessels in the dry, wet, container and offshore sectors.

Mr Papachristidis’ role is to oversee the business and “selectively look at new opportunities,” he said.

AI

AI is “already shaping how we manage voyages, manage maintenance, analyse fuel consumption, train crews,” he said.

“There is a dangerous misconception that AI is primarily a tool for replacing people. That mindset is not only wrong, it is suicidal.”

The goal with AI is to improve the outcome of the work, not to (for example) enable a superintendent to manage twice as many ships.

“Shipping is a human centred industry. Ships do not run on algorithms.

They run on trust, judgment, and experience. AI should be used to augment those capabilities, not undermine them.”

Mr Papachristidis has three principles for how AI should be used.

It should aim to reduce cognitive load which the tasks demand from people, not remove human agency. For example, it may be able to automate a complex task of manually entering data into five different systems. The   engineer determines what data to input and is accountable for this.

Second, AI should “democratise expertise,” such as providing a junior superintendent with insights that previously might have taken 20 years of experience to develop. But while AI can compress learning curves, it cannot replace leadership, he said.

Third, AI must be explainable. If it recommends a route or a maintenance action, the human operator must understand why.

You cannot have a good maritime safety culture together with black box AI,” he said. “A person must be accountable. Machines cannot be held responsible.”

“The winning company will be one that uses AI to make their people more capable, more confident and more valuable. The losing companies will be those who look for ways to cut headcount and hope the software fills the gap.”

“I love how Microsoft has named their AI CoPilot because that's what it is. Something that is there to help you but not decide for you,” he said.

AI may be able to make it easier to manage communications between managers and owners. Owners often want information about a ship presented in different ways, he said. AI based tools could provide them with information in exactly the way they like it.

Cybersecurity

Meanwhile, the shipping industry does not take cybersecurity risks seriously enough, he said. The industry has ships all over the world, with thousands of internet connections, maintained by dozens of vendors, staffed by rotating crews, and reliant on digital systems never designed for today’s age.

“If you were designing the perfect environment for cyber vulnerability, you would design shipping.”

“Yet many organisations treat cybersecurity as an IT problem, because cyber risk is intangible. You can't see it, can't touch it, or easily quantify it,” he said. “A corroded pipe is obvious. A compromised network is invisible, until it isn't.”

“The consequences are very real. Navigation systems can be spoofed,

cargo data can be manipulated, ransomware can immobilise entire fleets,

port operations can be disrupted for days, sensitive commercial information can be stolen.”

“The weakest link is almost always human behaviour, a crewmember clicking a phishing email, a superintendent using the same password everywhere, a vendor connecting an unpatched laptop to a vessel network.”

Cybersecurity should be seen to be related to safety, compliance, business continuity, reputation, and a leadership responsibility, he said. “We need a mindset shift.”

“If CEOs don't understand their cyber risk exposure they cannot manage operational risk. If boards do not ask the right questions they cannot fulfil their fiduciary duty.”

“The companies which survive the next decade are those which treat cyber resilience with the same seriousness as physical safety.”

Software

Mr Papachristidis’ view on today’s maritime software is that the digital ecosystem has become unmanageable.

“There was a time when a company could run its operations on a single ERP. Today, a typical shipowner uses a planned maintenance system, a procurement system, a QHSE platform, a crewing system, a voyage optimisation tool, a fuel emissions monitoring tool, a document management system, a training platform, a cybersecurity monitoring tool.”

Added to these tools are many applications linked to products of specific vendors, each with their own license, interface, data structure, update cycle, and contract.

“This is not digitalisation, it is fragmentation, and fragmentation creates problems.”

It gets very expensive. “Software licensing has become a silent Opex expansion,” he said. Every new regulation seems to require a new tool, every new tool requires integration, every integration requires consultants, and suddenly your digital budget looks like a second dry dock.”

It also makes for much more operational complexity. “Crew and shore staff are drowning in logins, dashboards and workflows. Instead of simplifying work, software is often adding friction.”

And data is stored in many different systems. “You don't have data driven decision making, you have data chaos,” he said.

The future of maritime software should be based on interoperability, human centric design and cost transparency, he said.

“Vendors must stop building closed ecosystems. APIs should be open, interactions should be standardised and data should flow seamlessly. If your software cannot talk to other software, it has no place onboard the vessel.”

“Software developers must have the end user in mind. We need tools designed for the realities of shipboard life, including limited connectivity, limited time, rotating crews and high stakes decisions.

The best software is invisible, or intuitive and easy to use. It supports work without getting in the way.”

“Shipowners should not be paying for overlapping features across multiple tools,” he said. “We need modular tools, and flexible pricing models that reflect actual usage.”

“If we get this right we can move from digital clutter to digital clarity.”