Chris Greenwood – Commercial Director for Western Europe and the Americas at  Bureau Veritas (Platinum level sponsor for this Project) discusses the takeaways from Intent Communications’ Demystifying digitalisation and AI in maritime Roundtable held in London in Q4 2025. He highlights the various ways in which AI adoption is going to alter maritime operations with regard to safety, culture and governance, vulnerabilities and infrastructure in the video transcript included below.

You can learn more about Bureau Veritas here.

To find out more about sponsorship opportunities for the campaign, please email namrata@intentcommunications.co.uk 
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Video Transcript :

Hi there. My name is Chris Greenwood. I’m the Commercial Director for Bureau Veritas Group for Western Europe and the Americas. We are really proud to be the sponsors of Intent Communications’ ‘Demystifying Digitalisation and AI in Maritime’ campaign for 2026. We recently held the first Intent Communications workshop and we had a fantastic discussion with a range of stakeholders both from within and from outside the maritime industry. That’s a really, really crucial point to get other industries involved. We had participants from Google and Uber and it was naturally amazing to learn from these AI trailblazers.

We discussed a whole range of things. We started with the drivers of digital transformation, the huge potential that digitalisation offers the maritime industry both operationally, commercially and most importantly, on safety. We talked about data being a strategic asset, the need for organisations to treat data as a critical strategic asset to be integrated across multiple domains. We also talked about the need to establish robust governance frameworks.

 One of the big topics we discussed was how technology and culture interact and the need for symbiosis, that successful digital transformation requires more than just good implementation. It demands an adaptive organisational culture that embraces continuous learning, innovation, and most importantly, cross-functional collaboration. We talked about investment and AI strategy, that AI is not a passing trend, but is a fundamental technological shift. The need for companies to approach AI investments strategically, focusing on needs-driven solutions and starting with low-risk, high-impact pilot projects.

We looked at the sector-specific nature of our industry, the fact that different marine sectors have unique AI and digital transformation needs, and that solutions need to be tailored according to their specific operational challenges. Naturally, we looked at regulation and the compliance landscape, the fact that emerging regulations will play a crucial role in driving digital transformation, with a focus on establishing standardised reporting and the need for harmonised standards across the industry.

We looked at risk and how are we going to manage that in this new AI era, that we need to develop risk management frameworks that address AI-specific challenges, including potential decision-making errors, bias, cybersecurity vulnerabilities, and ethical considerations. We talked about infrastructure, successful digital transformation requiring a systems mindset focused on interoperable systems, and how they integrate with one another. And we also talked about stakeholder engagement, that effective digital policy implementation depends on creating compelling value propositions, transparent communication, comprehensive change management support, and most importantly, developing a culture that encourages technological innovation.

We finished by talking about the future maritime landscape that the next decade is likely to see more accelerated transformation, including increased automation, autonomous vessel operations, sustainability monitoring, and advanced AI decision support systems. And this is going to have a fundamental shift in operational paradigms. So in conclusion, the increased adoption of digital technology and the deployment of AI, it’s an inevitability for our industry. And it’s fundamental to its future success. And it’s therefore a really, really important conversation.

Here at Bureau Veritas, we are so pleased to be at the forefront of this conversation partnering with Intent Communications to ensure that the marine industry both manages the risk, but most importantly, capitalises on the immense opportunities that this presents.