ABS: Rising Complexities Demand New Approach to Tech Adoption

“Access to innovation is no longer enough. Competitive advantage will be defined by how effectively we turn technology into safe, reliable performance at sea," said John McDonald, ABS Chairman and CEO at Capital Link at the start of Posidonia, as he set out the urgent need to close the gap between rapid technological advancement and real-world performance.

He highlighted the increasingly complex operating environment facing shipping, shaped by constrained capital, rising costs, extended voyages, crew shortages and escalating cyber risk and how this has direct implications for safety.

“Taken together, complexity is building faster than it can be absorbed. That is showing up in elevated risk, whether from aging assets or from the challenges of integrating new systems and training crews to operate them. For shipowners, the result is clear: higher cost, less predictability and thinner margins for error, with direct implications for safety,” said McDonald.

Innovation continues to accelerate across digitalization, energy systems and vessel design and McDonald pointed to the next wave of technologies, including artificial intelligence, robotics and digital twins, as having the potential to reshape vessel design, operations and lifecycle performance. He stressed that the industry must now focus on integrating new technologies into live operations, aligning them with regulatory expectations and supporting crews in using them effectively.

“The gap between what is technically possible and what is operationally viable is one of the most pressing issues we all face,” he said. “The progress of our industry will be defined by how well new technologies are aligned with vessel design, regulatory clarity, human interaction, and lifecycle performance.

“These advances have to work on real vessels, with real crews, under real constraints. Technology can only deliver when people are ready to use it.”

McDonald highlighted how ABS is actively investing to support the industry in adopting technology safely at scale, with recent announcements around the ABS SeaTech Innovation Exchange centers in Houston and Athens which are designed to accelerate technology development from concept to application.

“A new era of shipping is taking shape now,” he said. “It will be more connected, more data-driven, and more technically capable than anything we have seen before. That brings complexity, but it also brings a very real opportunity: to build an industry that is safer, smarter, and better prepared for the demands ahead.”