Almost two-thirds (63%) of maritime professionals now use AI every day, according to new research from Marcura, although only 8% describe their organisation as mature and governed in its use of the technology.
The Earning Trust: AI in Maritime report, prepared by consultancy Thetius based on a survey of 60 people, found that 55% of respondents spend at least an hour each week checking or correcting AI-generated output, with almost one in five spending five hours or more.
Despite this verification effort, 85% of those surveyed said that AI saves them time overall.
The report refers to the time and attention spent checking AI-generated work as the “verification tax”, with trust in AI outputs still developing. Some 57% of respondents placed their trust in AI-generated outputs at the midpoint of a five-point scale.
Seven in ten said they would always check an AI recommendation before acting on an important business decision, while 80% believe a named person should remain accountable for a commercial decision regardless of how capable AI becomes.
However, the research also suggests that some verification is driven by uncertainty rather than the consequences of a decision. Most respondents encounter errors at least sometimes when checking AI output, while fewer than one in ten said their organisation’s data is fully ready for AI to rely on.
If an AI output had previously proved reliable, 47% said they would spend much less time checking it.
“Maritime doesn’t have a shortage of data,” said Janani Yagnamurthy, Senior Vice President, Product, Strategic Growth at Marcura.
“The problem is that the context needed to make a good decision is often scattered across contracts, emails, documents, systems and the experience of the people doing the work. Putting AI on top of that fragmentation doesn’t make the problem disappear.”
“The opportunity is to bring that context together at the point where a decision is being made, and then learn from what actually happens. When the system can show what it is basing an answer on, be tested against real outcomes and improve from human corrections, there is less reason to check everything from scratch. That is how AI starts to earn trust rather than simply asking for it.”
The research also identifies a shift from AI providing recommendations towards systems capable of taking action. Some 72% said their organisations are already using, piloting or planning agentic AI systems, while only 15% said their governance is ready for this type of technology.
AI is also being used to transfer organisational knowledge, with 75% of respondents saying it is helping less-experienced colleagues become effective faster.
