Is the shipping industry embracing the digital age?

Sally-Ann Underhill, of Reed Smith, asks whether regulation will drive greater use of technology in the marine industry and reveals the results of a recent survey on the same question

We are living in what it is tempting to call “interesting times”, with world trade changing and sanctions dominating. At the same time, while the changes in technology that we have seen in the last 20 to 30 years are ones that it is difficult to imagine being overshadowed by those yet to come, that is what we are told is the future. We, therefore, asked the shipping industry what it is expecting in the next five years in terms of technological drivers and efficiencies and what it sees as its greatest challenges.