Page 41: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (April 2026)

JOHN MCDONALD, CHAIRMAN & CEO, ABS “Our core business is classi? cation, that’s who we are, a mission-driven organization and that’s what we’ve been doing since 1862. How we do it is another matter. If you look at the investments being made in technology today, maritime is most certainly on this growth curve that we’ve never seen before.”

As noted, ABS has been building the infrastructure to use its The ef? ciency gains are real. McDonald said that last year own data more intelligently, which McDonald says has been a alone ABS reduced survey staff travel time by thousands of deliberate effort to structure information from across its vessel hours. But the deeper point is strategic. Remote capability, base, build data lakes, develop large language model capabil- condition-based class and condition-based maintenance all ity and create tools that allow ABS to understand vessel con- point to a more intelligent version of class service, one less dition and operational patterns with greater depth than before. tied to rigid intervals and more responsive to actual equipment

In practical terms, that means the organization can increas- condition and operating data, as is being done with MSC. ingly look at live or near-live vessel data, identify anomalies, The willingness across the industry of owners to participate, support clients proactively and in some cases satisfy elements McDonald says, has been strong, and that makes sense. If the of classi? cation or compliance remotely. data helps owners improve ef? ciency, anticipate failures, opti-

That is not theoretical. ABS already performs a meaningful mize spare parts and avoid unnecessary downtime while also percentage of its survey activity remotely. Put another way, this supporting class, the value proposition is obvious. is no longer a pilot project nor chatter for conference presenta-

Digitalization and AI tions, rather an operating model. By moving certain checks and document-driven activities remote, ABS effectively reduces Arti? cial intelligence is the other large thread running travel, reduces fatigue among survey staff and directs human at- through McDonald’s agenda, but as with all of the other top- tention toward the tasks that genuinely require boots on steel — ics discussed, they do not stand solo in a silo rather exist in tank inspections, structural assessment, critical systems evalu- unison with all of the other techs and topics discussed. Here ation and other work where physical presence is irreplaceable. again, his approach is practical. ABS stood up an AI Center of www.marinelink.com 41

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