01 / SHIPPING
AI before AI was cool
Introduced AI into shipping before AI became a boardroom topic.
Shipping is heavy, physical and safety-critical. It is not where anyone expected machine learning to show up first.
- ROLE
- Global Head of Digital Innovation, Stena Line
- PERIOD
- Nov 2016 – Oct 2018 (Stena AB from Feb 2015)
- PLACE
- Gothenburg, Sweden
- FOCUS
- Machine learning, predictive analytics, data organisation
11 DAYS → 6 SEC
Manual process replaced by a machine learning task
100%
Cost of that process removed, with revenue up
1st
Head of AI in the company's history
What happened
- 01
Positioned the company from a conservative shipping company to a tech house with its own Head of AI.
- 02
Executed machine learning and predictive analysis across the board, and formed the data organisation and data science teams.
- 03
Shifted the organisational approach from technology-focused to design and experience-driven.
- 04
Replaced an 11-day manual process with a six-second machine learning task — removing the cost of it entirely and boosting revenue.
- 05
Earlier, at Stena AB: Head of Connectivity and Digital Transformation Officer, leading the big data, IoT and predictive analytics initiatives.
Why it mattered
The hardest part was changing the mindset of 60-year-old captains and port managers — people with decades of judgement that no model could replace, and who had to trust one anyway.
When a technology arrives before the vocabulary does, there is no budget line for it, no reference case and no internal consensus. The work is as much about people as about models.
Hear the full story
The shipping chapter opens the keynote.
BOOK AMER →