Generative AI wasn’t just another maritime trend or storyline in 2024. It became THE story for both Windward and the maritime ecosystem. Here’s why…(you’ll want to make it to the bottom of this post to see what 2025 will bring!).
Beyond the Buzz
Only a handful of organizations had incorporated Generative AI (Gen AI) into their offerings in a meaningful way by the start of 2024. It was feared that the term was in danger of being turned into a buzzword thrown around too freely, sometimes in a misleading fashion.
But then circumstances and technology converged to push Gen AI way beyond the buzz. Here are some of the challenges that necessitated the adoption of Gen AI in 2024, followed by the new and exciting developments of 2025.
Drowning in Data
Maritime operations generate massive amounts of data – from vessel positions and cargo details, to weather patterns and port activity. Each “dot on a map” in a legacy system signifies a decision point, but the sheer volume often blurs the ability to make clear decisions.
Critical signals can be easily missed when looking at the pure mass of raw data, leading to slower response times or overlooked risks. Without explainability and contextualization, what good is all this data? The goal is to quickly collect the data, process it, and produce actionable insights.
Organizational Limitations
Three factors are hampering maritime organizations:
- Lack of resources: organizations are struggling to hire, train and onboard team members and experts – both in terms of speed and depth of domain understanding.
- Decreased productivity: evolving risk management requirements have significantly increased interactions between stakeholders, but there is a shortage of experts to manage these communications. Freight forwarding operators, for instance, spend 15% of their time providing updates to customers and gathering shipment details.
- Counterparty communications: these increased interactions between stakeholders and their counterparties has raised a standardization challenge. To increase efficiency, and maintain alignment, organizations must standardize their approach and queries to counterparties.
The Black Swans
2024 was hectic. We saw flurries of sanctions and regulations related to Russia’s war with Ukraine, Houthi rebels disrupting the entire global supply chain, super typhoons and extreme weather events, port strikes, and the targeting of underwater cables.
Additionally, 2024 saw the continued rise and evolution of location (GNSS) manipulation, as manipulated paths became much harder to detect. Windward recently received two patents for its Location (GNSS) Manipulation model.
The point being that when the world seems like it has suddenly gotten turned upside down, organizations wish they possessed technology that is agile and can offer early detection, with actionable insights.
To cope with the above challenges, and more, the industry looked towards Gen AI, which was proving so effective in other industries and sectors.
The Industry’s First Gen AI Agent!
To help the maritime and supply chain ecosystems cope with these challenges, Windward launched MAI Expert™ in 2024, the industry’s first maritime Gen AI agent. It’s a virtual subject matter expert trained on Windward’s proprietary AI models and human expertise.
The initial focus was on making vessel screening easy, but it has since expanded to also include shipment tracking. Windward’s industry-first, trade-focused Gen AI summaries have proven to increase ROI by up to 88x with:
- Expert risk assessments
- Auto-generated email drafts with selectable tones and languages
- Adverse media screening
- Shipment voyage assessments (port congestion and predicted ETAs)
- Shipment exception insights
The scope has expanded to become a tool that optimizes global trade and maritime risk management, automates investigations, and promotes business growth. It cuts through the sea of data to accelerate decision-making processes and standardizes communications with automated risk assessments highlighting key insights that truly matter for a business’ bottom line.
A Powerful 1-2 Punch Was Then Introduced
Windward greatly amplified the effect of our Gen AI agent by pairing it with the newly launched Early Detection. This is a groundbreaking, AI-based solution that acts like a crystal ball, providing a comprehensive view of emerging world events that may disrupt supply chains, impact global trade, or threaten national security.
Best of all, it is powered by MAI Expert™, to provide immediate context and explainability.
What Will 2025 Bring?
Some companies were excited to start talking about Gen AI following the Chat GPT explosion – Windward has been developing AI models since 2015. Expect much greater Gen AI adoption and penetration in the coming year. Its application for supply chain and logistics professionals, traders and shippers, and government organizations is practically limitless.
Let’s focus on the supply chain/logistics ecosystem in the interest of brevity. Two new uses cases are coming:
- Shipment summary – MAI Expert™ will look at port calls, exceptions and what happened on the route, to provide a summary. It will be possible to see exceptions around transshipments.
- Date in port – how long each container spends in each of the ports.
Here are some capabilities to look for in the supply chain/logistics ecosystem:
- Unified analysis of shipment milestones, exceptions and predicted ETAs
- Tools to draft customer ready email updates
- Shareable shipment page delivers customer-ready summaries
These enhancements are expected to help supply chain users 4.5X their ROI on operations, eliminate repetitive tasks, and free up teams for high-value activities. They’ll manage more shipments with precision and excellence.
Vertical AI + Gen AI = full control. To unlock Gen AI’s true potential, businesses must zero in on precise use cases. Want to see and hear more, including what’s in store for governmental organizations, and traders and shippers in 2025?
I Want to Experience the Expert!
