The maritime industry has optimised its vessels but its operations are still in the Dark Ages.

By Osher Perry, CEO, ShipIn Systems

The maritime industry has made remarkable progress in optimising vessel performance.

Fuel efficiency technologies, advanced voyage planning, emissions monitoring and predictive maintenance have transformed how fleets are managed. Operators today have powerful tools to measure and improve the technical performance of ships.

Yet at the very moment regulators are placing greater emphasis on the human element of shipping, much of what actually happens onboard ships is still a matter of guesswork and conjecture.

At the IMO’s Human Element, Training and Watchkeeping Sub-Committee (HTW 12), regulators recently advanced new regulations aimed at strengthening seafarer training and addressing fatigue management at sea. These initiatives recognise that human-factor risks remain central to maritime safety and that training is essential. But how does this address risks that remain invisible?

Across navigation, engineering, mooring, bunkering and cargo operations, many critical activities are still documented manually and reviewed only after the fact, creating a persistent visibility gap between ship and shore.

For an industry built around safety and accountability, that lack of operational visibility should concern us. If shipping wants to reduce accidents, manage fatigue more effectively and support crews onboard, it must improve visibility into the real operational conditions vessels face every day.

Closing this visibility gap represents one of the most important opportunities for improving maritime safety and performance. Ships already generate enormous volumes of technical data. The real challenge is not collecting more information but transforming everyday operational activity into structured intelligence that managers can act on.

When shipowners and managers can clearly see what is happening onboard, they can move from reacting to incidents to preventing them. This is where contextual operational visibility becomes critical.

Advances in visual analytics now make it possible to convert onboard video streams into structured, time-stamped operational insight. Instead of serving only as passive recordings for incident review, these systems can interpret events as they occur, identifying workflows, flagging deviations from procedures and turning routine shipboard activity into measurable operational data.

Combined with this is the shift toward AI-assisted operations, where technology acts as a true co-pilot for both crew and shore teams. Instead of relying solely on human vigilance, vessels can now benefit from automated situational awareness that continuously monitors equipment, environments, and workflows.

Predictive failure detection flags issues before they escalate, giving teams time to plan maintenance and avoid costly downtime. By fusing data from cameras, sensors, logs, and other onboard systems, AI helps present a clearer operational picture and supports faster, more confident decision-making. This is not about automation replacing people, it’s about automation empowering people, amplifying their expertise, and enabling them to run safer, more efficient, and more resilient operations.

Of course, operational transparency must be implemented responsibly. Clear governance, transparent data policies and strong crew engagement are essential. When introduced with the right intent, these systems reduce administrative burden and strengthen collaboration between ship and shore.

The maritime industry has repeatedly demonstrated that it can innovate when performance demands it. Decarbonisation is accelerating technical change, while digitalisation has transformed how fleets monitor vessel performance.

I believe the next leap forward will not come from machinery alone. It will come from making operations visible, measurable and continuously improvable. The industry’s next transformation depends on understanding what truly happens at sea and using that insight to drive improvement. We have mastered vessel data. Now it is time to bring its operations into the modern world.