Sixteen leading customers attended Windward’s first Customer Advisory Board (CAB) event in London to discuss how Generative AI (Gen AI) is set to transform the maritime ecosystem, as well as other coming innovations.
This collaborative event aimed to create a space for our leading customers to engage in fruitful discussions and provide valuable product feedback. It also provided a great opportunity for customers to network, share ideas, and learn about Windward’s road map and how coming functionality can help their business.
Customers came from leading companies across various sectors – such as energy, maritime, P&I clubs, and commodity trading – highlighting the diverse interests engaged in shaping the future of maritime.
Agenda Highlights: Innovation at the Forefront
The full agenda Ami Daniel, CEO and Co-Founder, led a session on the transformative potential of generative AI for the maritime and trade sectors. Amir Israel, Vice President of Product, outlined the 2024 roadmap and product strategy, showcasing Windward’s forward-thinking approach to navigating the industry’s future challenges. Ariel Zibziner, Vice President of Business Services, introduced the customer service team, emphasizing Windward’s dedication to customer success.
An external presentation by Control Risks, a specialist global risk consultancy, offered a broader perspective and analysis of geopolitical challenges and trends, such as the Red Sea and the Russian war, providing a better understanding of the landscape in which Windward’s clients operate.
Generative AI Overview
AI models are trained on vast amounts of unstructured data, which equips them with the capability to understand and learn complex concepts due to their large number of parameters. This inherent complexity and adaptability make generative AI applicable across a wide range of contexts, offering versatile solutions to diverse challenges.
Foundation models can be customized using specific datasets, allowing them to be finely tuned for particular tasks within a given domain. This customization enhances their effectiveness, making generative AI a powerful tool for innovation and problem-solving in various industries.
An Example of Generative AI for the Travel Industry
Booking.com has unveiled its latest innovation in the travel industry with the launch of its AI Trip Planner. This new feature is built on Booking.com’s robust foundation of existing machine learning models and recommendation algorithms, with a significant enhancement – a conversational experience.
- AI-powered discovery: Booking.com’s AI Trip Planner assists with all stages of trip planning, offering personalized advice and itineraries based on travelers’ preferences
- Custom recommendations: users interact with the AI for customized travel options, quickly receiving tailored suggestions for destinations and accommodations
- Integrated booking experience: the AI Planner is seamlessly integrated into the Booking.com app and combines visual listings, pricing, and direct booking links, simplifying reservation completion
Through this conversational interface, Booking.com is leveraging all of its known strengths to redefine the customer experience, making trip planning more interactive, personalized, and efficient.
Generative AI for Maritime
Gen AI has the potential to also have a great impact on the maritime industry. The global maritime and shipping industry is increasingly in need of data, software, and services as it navigates its early stages of digital development. Gen AI could be used to enhance all three and help:
- Provide AI-driven supply chain visibility for cargo, containers, and commodities transported by sea
- Improve trade efficiency/reduce trade friction
- Ensure compliance with global sanctions, security, and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations
- Improve safety and sustainability for vessels and crew
- Improve data connectivity and communications at sea
- Monitor and reduce carbon emissions from vessel journeys
An earlier Windward blog post took a closer look at generative AI’s potential to reshape the supply chain ecosystem. Ocean freight has been relying on various manual methods for managing exceptions and optimizing yield for freight forwarders and shippers. Leveraging the power of advanced algorithms and data analytics, generative AI could reshape these two functions, scaling up automation and customer service in real-time, which would spike operational efficiency and cost savings.
Generative AI could alert freight forwarders’ customers to exceptions, but existing technology already does that and we can allow ourselves to think bigger. It is already possible to receive immediate, automatically-generated messages containing your organization’s service level agreements, rates, and customer commitments.
What if this could be taken to the next level with an immediate, automatically-generated message that explains how a specific exception affects your service level agreements and rates, tariffs, and commitments to your customers?
The Customer Advisory Board set the stage for future events, signaling Windward’s continued commitment to cultivate an interactive community of customers. The event was summarized aptly by Aviel Sivan, Head of Global Customer Success: “It was a great opportunity to meet our long-term and strategic customers, exchange ideas, discuss the future of Maritime AI™, and how to satisfy the challenging and evolving business requirements.”
We are already planning for next year’s event and we look forward to collaborating with even more customers!
