NAPA and Samsung Heavy Industries Push AI Upstream — Into the Design Office

NAPA and Samsung Heavy Industries (SHI) have signed a memorandum of understanding to improve the design and operation of fuel-efficient ships by combining real operating data with digital voyage-optimisation tools — moving AI decision-support to the moment a newbuild is still on the drawing board. The work starts with SHI's SAVER Wing, a rigid two-element wing sail that adds wind thrust to cut engine load and emissions. What's actually new: rather than lean on standard design-stage assumptions, NAPA will model how a specific vessel design performs under the real voyage and weather conditions it will sail, so owners get accurate fuel-and-emissions projections before committing to a multi-million-dollar, 25-year asset. The AI angle runs into operations too: the MoU sets out plans to embed NAPA Voyage Optimization into SHI's Samsung Autonomous Ship (SAS) platform, so the same intelligence that shaped the design keeps guiding routing and speed at sea, and to build digital twins of ship equipment via NAPA's operational simulation to verify performance from day one. Why this matters for ship managers: this is the "efficiency by design" argument made concrete — the biggest fuel savings are locked in (or lost) at the newbuild stage, and wind-assist plus voyage optimisation only pay off if they're validated against how the ship will really trade. With NAPA noting that over 90% of new vessels are built by its customers, this could nudge more of the fleet toward data-backed efficiency choices. The honest caveat: this is an MoU building on a joint project started in May 2026, not a delivered result — watch for published in-service numbers that confirm the modelled savings survive contact with real weather and real routes. [Splash247 · Riviera · Smart Maritime Network]

This story is part of the Maritime AI Digest of 5 July 2026.