New digital systems and technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), are becoming more and more important in the shipping sector, transforming slowly but significantly one of the most conservative industries.
Asparuh Koev, CEO of Transmetrics, a Bulgarian tech company aiming to optimise logistics planning and asset management using the power of predictive analytics and artificial intelligence, talked to Container News about the impact of new technologies in the container shipping sector and the potential new dangers. Additionally, he commented on the introduction of the AI chatbot ChatGPT and its potential use in the shipping industry.
- How Artificial Intelligence can assist in major shipping challenges, such as port congestion and and empty container repositioning?
Transmetrics is already offering artificial intelligence for fixing empty container repositioning. Our AI is used to optimize the relocation of empty containers to the location where they will be used next. Machine learning algorithms are used to analyze historical shipping data to predict where containers are likely to be needed in the future, so containers can be moved in preparation to customer demand. This could reduce the size of the fleet of containers required by a shipping line by 7% (usually that amounts to thousands of containers no longer needed), while storage costs for empty containers can be cut by up to 30%, and logistics costs by up to 12%.
As regards port congestion, predicting vessel arrival times and the corresponding inbound and outbound flows to the port can help schedule and coordinate the hinterland operations to minimize congestion. The same can be used to forecast the workload of cranes, RPGs and other port equipment, ensuring even utilization and avoiding bottlenecks.
- Could new digital systems and tools lead to a “humanless” port and shipping industry?
At Transmetrics we don’t believe that this is possible, and even if it were somehow technically achievable, this is not the vision we are working towards. Our vision is that the human logistics expert is indispensable. Similar to how airplanes can take off, fly and land on auto-pilot, but still we can’t conceive an airplane without a pilot in the cockpit – the logistics process can also be running on autopilot, but will always require a human to oversee, take responsibility and intervene in case things go just a bit off. AI is going to be, however, indispensable in terms of dealing away with repetitive boring work, excel spreadsheets and gut-feeling decisions not based on data. The job of the planner with AI is going to be much more intelligent, focused on the big picture, interesting and productive.
- We have recently seen the introduction of ChatGPT, an AI chatbot capable of answering and solving several queries. Could it be used in the shipping industry? Which shipping parties could it help (and how)?
We are actively integrating ChatGPT in Transmetrics at the moment, and have a very coherent vision of how it can help (but not replace) logistics jobs. Our first experiments will center around the job of the logistics sales agents, which very much consists of answering countless tedious emails with requests for quotations. That can easily be streamlined and made more productive. We will share our journey – stay tuned for our upcoming announcements for webinars and vlogs around ChatGPT.
- How do you see the shipping industry in the next 10 years in terms of digital transformation progress?
One doesn’t need to be a futurist to imagine a better future, and we don’t need amazing new discoveries and inventions to make things better. By simply adopting wider currently available technologies – RFID, GPS, telematics, digital twins, demand forecasting, computer optimization – the efficiency of logistics can be increased dramatically, and the jobs in logistics could become very attractive for the new digital generation. And all these existing technologies will result in much more data being constantly generated and processed – an area in which we believe AI in general, and Transmetrics in particular, will be a key player for the decades to come.
- Do you believe that new technologies and digital systems could also bring new risks and threats, such as increased danger of cyber attacks?
Certainly the more a system is digitized, the bigger the impact of a cyber attack will be. However, let’s do a mental experiment. Imagine a system that is fully based on paper, like the ones existing in the beginning of the 20th century. That system would be 100% immune to cyberattacks, right? However, will it be more secure than today’s systems in principle? Few people would agree it will be. There will be just different – bigger - dangers, such as forged, lost and stolen documents, shipments disappearing without a trace, lack of transparency on performance, entire forests cut down to make paper forms, etc. It is much harder to protect against these dangers, and that is why we invented digitalization in the first place. Systems can be made secure, there is even an IT security standard – ISO 27001 – that we, for example, comply with. We should embrace these challenges, not back away from them.
