Russ Hubbard has a clear-eyed view of where maritime technology stands – and where it falls short. As chief commercial officer of Veson Nautical, one of shipping’s most established commercial management platforms, he watches the industry’s relationship with technology closely. His verdict on the AI moment? Promising, but dangerously prone to the wrong shortcuts.

“Maritime is a highly nuanced, technical industry reliant on complex contracts, execution, and compliance requirements,” he says.

“We need AI capabilities built specifically to meet those standards and workflows.” The risk, as Hubbard sees it, is that teams in the experimental phase of adoption reach for generic large language models and try to layer them over existing systems without understanding the limitations. “It is unlikely that generalised LLMs will be able to offer the same level of depth and knowledge that a specialised tool built for maritime can.”

At Veson, the approach is different. “We’re deeply embedding AI into our workflows, with purpose-built solutions tailored to the needs of our industry and clients,” he says. The foundation, in his view, requires speed, precision and autonomy alongside careful human oversight – and critically, data that is verified, secure and contextualised. “The data behind AI must be verified, secure, and contextualised, powering a scalable infrastructure built for agentic execution.”

Beyond AI, Hubbard identifies a second major development reshaping dry bulk operations: the move toward real-time data sharing across counterparties on standardised, secure networks. The benefit is straightforward – fewer follow-up emails, faster decisions, a single source of truth. “Change is happening faster than ever, and teams need the communication and collaboration tools to adapt quickly and cohesively,” he says.

On whether shipping has truly embraced a spend-to-save mentality, Hubbard is precise. The penny has not dropped uniformly, he argues – and the divergence between smaller family-owned operators and larger publicly traded enterprises is wide. Smaller organisations are hyper-focused on cost containment and lack the scale to distribute large fixed costs. Larger ones have already moved past the basics, where even marginal data advantages matter enormously at scale.

“It’s less about spending to save, and more about not being able to afford not investing,” he says. “The speed of change continues to accelerate, and the decision advantage between the data informed and the data uninformed is widening.” Investment is still disciplined overall, he notes – there is no mad rush – but competitive pressure and regulatory complexity are increasingly forcing the conversation.

Hubbard is attending Geneva Dry later this month, speakingh at the Digital Efficiency Drivers Across The Dry Bulk Supply Chain session and the timing feels apt. The Hormuz crisis has made the value of industry dialogue viscerally clear.

“In such a time of volatility, it’s more important than ever to be in communication and collaboration with industry peers to share best practices and work towards common solutions,” he says.

For Hubbard, that is ultimately what Geneva Dry represents – a forum where the principles he advocates for in technology, transparency, collaboration and shared intelligence, can be practised in person at a moment when the industry needs them most. “I’m excited to connect with fellow industry leaders to hear how they’re navigating this era in shipping, and the ways in which we can learn from and build on one another.”

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