Almost Everyone Uses AI, Almost Nobody Has Rules for It

Marcura published a report this week called Earning Trust: AI in Maritime. The consultancy Thetius wrote it, from a survey of 60 people working in the industry.

The headline numbers. 63% say they use AI every day. Only 8% describe their own company as mature and governed in how it uses AI. That is the gap in one line.

The checking cost. 55% spend at least one hour a week checking or fixing what the AI produced. Almost one in five spend five hours or more. The report calls this the "verification tax". Even so, 85% say AI saves them time overall. Seven in ten always check an AI recommendation before an important business decision. And 80% say a named person should stay responsible for a commercial decision, however good the AI becomes.

The part that matters most. 72% say their company already uses, tests or plans AI that can take action by itself, often called agentic AI. Only 15% say their rules are ready for it. Fewer than one in ten say their company's data is fully ready for AI to rely on.

Read the limits. Sixty people is a small sample, and we do not know how they were chosen. People who answer a survey about AI are more likely to be people who use AI. Marcura also sells AI products, and we covered its invoice-reading platform on 6 September. So treat the exact percentages with care. The direction is believable, because it matches what we see in every office: people started using the tools long before the company wrote a policy.

Why a ship manager should care. We have asked for eight weeks who is actually paying for the AI accounts your staff use. This report does not answer that. But it confirms the bigger point. Use is ahead of rules. If your company is in the 92%, the first step is small. Find out which tools your people already use, and what company data goes into them. [Smart Maritime Network · Splash247 · AiatSea, 6 September]

This story is part of the Maritime AI Digest of 4 October 2026.