Pic: Polaris managing partner and Chicago Propeller Club President Ben Pinnington, center, welcomes students from Chicago Hope Academy to club’s tech themed Maritime Day cruise. Click to watch speech detailing club’s top four priorities.
Is the AI bubble about to burst? It’s a question I’ve been mulling over since attending Posidonia, shipping’s greatest trade fair, earlier this month in Athens. A number of maritime executives raised an eyebrow to me at the sheer number of companies name dropping AI predicting something of a reckoning.
The exhibition itself meanwhile broke all records with 2,227 exhibitors from 83 countries, up nine per cent from 2024. Posidonia’s pulling power underlines what we all know – maritime is an industry built on relationships. For all the hype around AI LLMs, like ChatGPT and Gemini, they cannot build trust, seal a deal face-to-face or make serendipitous contacts at deafening parties in Glyfada.
At the same time, it is clear maritime tech is here to stay, even if many companies will not last the pace. This was demonstrated at the recent Maritime Day tech-themed cruise organized by the Chicago Propeller Club, where I am President. Here we heard talks from leading tech firms including sat comms company Inmarsat and software business Integra. Both gave advice on how tech is set to improve operations.
Tech’s ambition was further shown by the incredible range of businesses at Posidonia, spanning robotics, software, cyber, finance, decarbonization, autonomy and defense. For my money this is what the next 10 years looks like as more and more entrepreneurs grasp the opportunities around maritime, an old school global industry ripe for disruption.
Maritime tech – the scorpion dance
The challenge for tech firms, especially start ups and scale ups, is growth. This can only come from convincing and selling. This is achieved by showcasing the quality of their solution combined with their team’s pedigree in, and commitment to, maritime.
I have devoted a chapter ‘the Scorpion’s Dance’ to maritime tech in my new bookMaking Waves: PR strategies to transform your maritime business featuring advice from leading investors and tech entrepreneurs. Scaling up in maritime is hard. Maritime tech firms are usually pitching to conservative minded, middle aged, decision makers who frequently only act because of regulatory pressures. To stand a chance of success knowing your audience and having relationships is fundamental. This together with building an authentic reputation, showing you deliver while clearly demonstrating value. This is why communication matters and it is the theme of the latest Corporate Affairs report from Deloitte.
New comms report says ESG and purpose are declining, but is maritime an outlier?
The Deloitte report, The Road to 2030, draws on interviews with 42 communications leaders, largely from FTSE 100 companies, conducted between December 2025 and February 2026.
The report finds the communication landscape is changing with a bigger focus on communications driving performance. Since 2024, the share of corporate affairs leaders who describe themselves as growth drivers has more than doubled to 43%. Almost seven in ten leaders believe that their CEO or board shares that view.
The trade off is the retreat from purpose. Deloitte records what’s rising and falling:
- Rising: Geopolitical advisory, AI, measurement rigor, owned media (your website and publishing channels like LinkedIn) and podcasts.
- Falling: Media relations, purpose and ESG, social issues campaigning.
On the latter point I sense maritime is an outlier. The maritime trade media remains one of the strongest of any sector. Its staying power is underpinned by a need for a global industry to communicate with itself. So while some mainstream media is losing ground to digital, to be part of the maritime conversation it pays to be in the niche maritime press.
I would also sound a note of caution over diminishing purpose and ESG. Maritime firms like shipyards, ports and manufacturers are frequently embedded in communities employing large numbers of local people and supply chain businesses. It is important they continue to build reputation around purpose for the good they do as job and wealth creators. This not only does them justice but is key to attracting and retaining the best people. Similarly on ESG – the environmental component remains a major growth driver in maritime. The tone of the debate may have changed with the IMO Net Zero Framework controversy but the issue isn’t going away. The EU, for example, is ramping up environmental legislation with ETS and Fuel EU. And from sources I hear the Strait of Hormuz crisis has increased interest in alternative fuels.
Do you have an AI policy?
One area of the report maritime and engineering firms cannot avoid is AI and its governance.
Asked to complete “2026 is going to be the year of…”, leaders most often answered AI, followed by delivery.
But adoption remains largely tactical. The barriers Deloitte identifies are cultural and organizational: no clear strategy, fragmented data, governance concerns and skepticism within teams.
Our advice at Polaris is: get the basics right. Do not pass go with AI until you have protected yourself with a clear dos and don’ts AI governance policy. It’s not like climbing Everest but inexplicably many companies still do not have one. A top consideration should be to stipulate what can and cannot be shared with an LLM. Sensitive company or client data should not be shared, for risk of training the LLM or it being shared in the public domain. And clearly extend these guardrails for business-related work on personal LLMs. Further, ensure human oversight. Judgement should not be surrendered to AI. Despite the hype it is not sentient. AI does not have morals, humor or empathy. A person needs to be fact-checking LLM responses, which are frequently wrong, to protect against sharing factual errors, copyright infringement and bias.
This was underlined recently when the top US law firm Sullivan & Cromwell admitted that a filing it made in a high profile case contained multiple errors produced by artificial intelligence, known as “hallucinations”. AI hallucinations found in high-profile Wall Street law firm filing | AI (artificial intelligence) | The Guardian
Equally, with AI slop fatigue, how are you using AI for writing? While AI is effective for data analysis, translation and proofing, set boundaries. It should not be a refuge for the sloppy lazy writer. For example, important customer communications should be authentic and clearly written by a person. When I receive a personal email obviously written by AI I cringe. We would also caution against press releases, features and social media written by AI – the synthetic waffly results are obvious to the trained eye and a turn off for journalists.
For help updating your communications strategy, AI policy and storytelling, drop me a line.
Don’t miss Chicago Propeller Club’s flagship event
As many of you know I am President of Chicago Propeller Club, a chapter of the International Propeller Club, the biggest maritime networking organization in the world.
Our flagship event takes place on July 29, when we host the American Great Lakes Ports Association at Chicago Yacht Club ahead its annual conference in Chicago. We’ll be welcoming many senior figures including executives from the United States Maritime Administration (MARAD), US Department of Transportation, Great Lakes ports directors, vessel operators and the leaders of the US and Canadian Seaway authorities.
Sign up here: