Ingrid Kylstad, managing director of Klaveness Digital, pulls no punches when asked about the state of technology adoption in dry bulk shipping. Progress is real, she says in conversation with Splash ahead of her return to the Geneva Dry summit next month.

However, she warns that the industry’s internal structures are still holding it back in ways that have nothing to do with technology itself.

“Many technology decisions are still made on budget ownership rather than cross-functional value creation,” Kylstad says. “The conversation can quickly become about cost lines instead of outcomes.”

But the pace is uneven. The companies pulling ahead, Kylstad argues, are those that have broken the link between IT budget structures and technology decision-making. “The companies moving fastest are those that align digital investment with commercial performance, not just IT strategy. When that alignment is there, adoption accelerates significantly and the value comes. The industry just needs to shift focus away from the deciding factor being budget structure, and instead look to long-term value creation logic.”

She offers a striking example from her own customer base to illustrate the point. “We recently had a customer go from high double-digit demurrage to single-digit largely as a result of digitalising their workflows over the past two years. That result is a strong commercial outcome from a two-year project – it’s when you’re looking for value creation overnight when it becomes unrealistic.”

Expect to hear much more on this topic at Geneva Dry being held on April 28 and 29 at the Hotel President Wilson including the Digital Dry Hard Talk workshop, as well as sessions on risk management, and digital efficiency drivers.

On artificial intelligence, Kylstad is precise about where the industry stands and where the real step-change lies. “The biggest shift won’t be a single breakthrough – it will be AI moving from chat to execution,” she says. “We’re already seeing tools that don’t just analyse or summarise, but start to plug directly into workflows: drafting communications, running scenarios, structuring data, and supporting real commercial decisions.”

Shipping, she says, has embraced AI’s potential but remains early in operationalising it. Most adoption to date has centred on productivity assistance – summarising, drafting, searching, basic analytics. “That’s valuable, but it’s incremental. The real transformation comes when AI is trusted enough, and integrated enough, to support core commercial workflows.”

The broader market trend she is watching is stack consolidation. “The industry is tired of point solutions. The winners will be the tools that integrate cleanly, demonstrate measurable impact, and earn a durable place in the tech stack. We’re moving from fighting for screen time to fighting for infrastructure position, and that is definitely a change.”

Kylstad is clearly energised about returning to Geneva Dry. “Geneva Dry always has a unique buzz. People show up ready to share perspectives, compare notes and actually do business,” she says.

Klaveness Digital arrives with momentum, having recently launched the next generation of its flagship product CargoValue and secured new customers across its Pre-Vetting and Emissions Monitoring solutions. “We are eager to be on the road again showcasing how we’re future-proofing supply chain management for industrials,” she says.

But beyond the pipeline of meetings, it is the quality of conversation that draws her back. “Geneva Dry is one of the few places where you get candid conversations about what’s really happening in the market right now. For me, that exchange of real-time insight is what makes the event stand out.”

The full Geneva Dry agenda can be accessed here.
Geneva Dry registration, at just $920, can be accessed here.
Special Geneva Dry hotel room rates can be found here.