DOLGO Launches AI Platform to Combat Maritime Workforce Skills Crisis

Florida-based startup DOLGO launched its AI platform at the Blue Innovation Symposium in Rhode Island in February 2026, targeting one of the maritime industry's most pressing structural challenges: the approaching workforce skills cliff edge as experienced workers retire faster than replacements can be trained. Spun out of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Ocean Enterprise Accelerator and tested with the University of South Florida's marine science lab, the platform provides shipyards and maritime organizations with a private Large Language Model that continuously updates with proprietary workforce knowledge. The scale of the crisis: In the United States alone, the average age of the 146,500-strong shipyard workforce is 55 years old — and this aging challenge is compounded by shipbuilding demand expected to more than double over the next decade. Younger worker attrition rates run at 20%, creating a compounding skills gap where expertise leaves faster than it can be replaced. DOLGO founder Nithesh Wazenn described the situation as a "ticking timebomb" where the most valuable knowledge lives in the heads and hands of experts, not in documentation. The platform enables workers to call each other for real-time problem-solving advice while the AI learns from every interaction, building an institutional knowledge base that persists even after workers retire. Spotify model for expertise: What distinguishes DOLGO from generic knowledge management is its approach to the ownership problem — older workers are often reluctant to share valuable expertise with younger colleagues earning the same wage. DOLGO's platform incentivizes knowledge sharing through a royalty model where workers are rewarded each time their expertise is accessed, similar to how musicians earn from streaming downloads. This creates a marketplace for industrial knowledge and expertise. The platform also addresses emerging sectors like autonomous vessel development, where highly specialized work has created significant skills shortages that limit innovation speed. For ship managers and shipyard operators, DOLGO represents an AI approach to workforce continuity that goes beyond training manuals — capturing the contextual, judgment-based decision-making that experienced engineers bring to complex problems and making it accessible when and where new workers need it most. [Digital Ship / Marine Technology Reporter / Hellenic Shipping News]

This story is part of the Maritime AI Digest of 22 February 2026.