Jacques Goudchaux has watched maritime technology evolve from before the dotcom bubble to today’s AI frenzy. The AXSMarine chief tells Maritime CEO the next breakthrough will not come from technology alone, but from combining artificial intelligence with trusted shipping data.
Goudchaux has been around maritime technology long enough to have witnessed several supposedly transformative technologies come and go.
The CEO of AXSMarine has seen shipping’s digital journey stretch from the years before the dotcom bubble through blockchain mania and the proliferation of data platforms to today’s extraordinary rush into artificial intelligence.
For Goudchaux, AI really is different. But he insists the technology is only useful when built on something shipping has historically struggled to produce: clean, validated and properly structured data.
“AI anchored to trustworthy maritime data is what changes decision-making,” he tells Maritime CEO.
The argument has become particularly pertinent following Signal Ocean’s acquisition of AXSMarine in January. The two businesses are bringing together their respective maritime datasets, analytics and technology operations, with the enlarged group supporting more than 1,500 clients at the time the deal was announced.
Goudchaux sees opportunities coming from applying machine learning to decades of voyage histories, port calls, freight fixtures and vessel-performance records.
Shipping has spent years collecting information, he argues, without always paying sufficient attention to cleaning, verification and normalisation.
“The industry will not improve by collecting more data,” he says. “It will improve by investing in better data quality.”
He estimates that shipping currently converts perhaps 15% to 20% of vessel data into actionable operational decisions, rising to around 30% to 35% among the best operators.
Raw sensor information without reliable baselines, commercial context and properly checked vessel reports, he says, produces noise rather than intelligence.
Having lived through multiple technology cycles, Goudchaux has little trouble identifying one technology that failed to live up to its billing.
Blockchain for documentation tracking is his choice for maritime’s most overhyped technology.
Around eight years ago it was routinely presented as shipping’s next game changer. Goudchaux says the concept remains sound, but convincing dozens of parties across multiple jurisdictions and competing commercial interests to participate in the same ledger has proved enormously difficult. Many pilots have consequently disappeared.
Far less glamorous technology, meanwhile, may provide considerably greater value.
Goudchaux nominates high-frequency port intelligence as one of maritime technology’s most underestimated opportunities. Shipping tends to concentrate on vessel efficiency at sea, he says, while substantial inefficiency and emissions are generated waiting at anchor or alongside.
Better congestion information and predictive berth availability could cut waiting times and unnecessary positioning.
“It doesn’t generate headlines,” he says. “But it generates returns.”
Voyage optimisation is another technology he believes already offers compelling economics. Goudchaux says operators using good weather information, fuel-consumption telemetry and disciplined voyage optimisation can achieve fuel reductions of 8% to 12%.
The principal obstacle is no longer whether the technology works, he argues, but whether companies consistently use it.
The biggest barrier to scaling digitalisation across shipping is integration rather than cost, Goudchaux reckons.
Maritime technology has developed in silos, with separate systems covering voyage management, procurement, vessel performance and market intelligence. Proprietary ecosystems make interoperability harder, while resistance to changing established working practices compounds the problem.
Scaling technology across different ship types, operators and systems therefore becomes “a project management nightmare” as much as a technical exercise.
Goudchaux would mandate a universal vessel and port-event reporting standard if given the opportunity: one common model governing voyage events, arrivals, berth movements and cargo operations.
Today, the same port arrival can be represented differently by AIS, the master, terminal, port authority and owner.
Solving that fragmentation, he argues, would unlock much of what the industry wants AI to achieve.
That philosophy also shapes his view of maritime technology consolidation.
Goudchaux sees genuine value in combining voyage-management systems with market intelligence, bringing commercial context and operational execution into the same decision-making environment.
But not all consolidation is healthy. He worries about technology companies being acquired primarily to form part of portfolios designed for another sale several years later. That can slow product development, increase pricing pressure and make customer relationships more transactional.
“Maritime is a long-cycle industry,” Goudchaux says. Shipping needs technology partners with patience and genuine domain expertise rather than businesses optimised primarily around investment exit multiples.
After more than two decades watching maritime technology repeatedly reinvent itself, Goudchaux’s conclusion is rather unflashy.
There will probably be no single maritime technology that changes everything. AI itself is increasingly a commodity available to everybody. The competitive advantage comes from combining technologies into efficient workflows and feeding them with better information.
As Goudchaux puts it, data alone is no longer enough. What matters now is turning it into decisions.
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