From Experience to Insight: Klaveness Facilitates Shipping’s Digital Move

Few companies sit more squarely at the intersection of shipping expertise and digital innovation than Klaveness Digital, part of the Torvald Klaveness Group. Born out of the operational DNA of the Klaveness Group, the Oslo-based technology company has spent nearly a decade translating maritime know-how into digital platforms built for real-world users. Under the leadership of Managing Director Ingrid Kylstad, Klaveness Digital is helping move the industry beyond pilots and proof-of-concept projects and into what she describes as shipping’s “early adulthood” in digital maturity.

The Crossroads of Policy, Tech & Shipping

Kylstad joined Klaveness in 2021, initially as sustainability lead within an innovation unit focused on decarbonization. Her path into maritime, however, was anything but accidental. Prior roles placed her at the intersection of maritime policy, sustainability, technology investment and innovation, including work with the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association and an investment firm focused on impact startups in ocean industries.

It was during her time working directly with shipowners and regulators that shipping’s broader significance became clear. “Shipping is really where policy, technology and global trade come together,” she explains. “It’s also a sector where you can genuinely have an impact, where change matters.”

That perspective continues to shape how Klaveness Digital approaches its role today: grounded in operational reality, but focused firmly on what comes next.

Digital Solutions Rooted in Operational Experience

Klaveness Digital did not begin as a typical shipping software startup. Its origins lie in a simple but powerful realization: the Klaveness Group had accumulated decades of insight from operating in physical shipping markets — dry bulk and combination carriers — and that knowledge could be translated into scalable digital products.

Rather than starting with vessel-focused tools, the company initially looked upstream, asking a different question: What problems do industrial cargo owners face?

The answer led Klaveness Digital into supply chain decision support, not traditional shipping software. Its flagship product, CargoValue, was designed to give industrial charterers a digital twin of their seaborne supply chain, connecting shipments, inventories, planning and decision-making into a single, collaborative platform.

Today, the scale of that platform is significant. CargoValue has processed nearly 50,000 shipments, managing approximately 1.4 billion metric tons of cargo. It serves industrial customers with complex maritime supply chains—companies for whom running out of inventory is not an option.

“What we build for are the supply chain planners,” Kylstad says. “The people who need visibility, real-time insight and decision support across shipments, inventory and multiple variables—all at once.”

Image courtesy Klaveness Digital

Decarbonization used to be hype-driven,” she notes. “Now it’s operational. Companies want emissions data they can trust, and eventually, data they can use directly in decision-making.”

- Ingrid Kylstad,
Managing Director Klaveness Digital

From Emissions to Pre-Vetting

While supply chain solutions remain Klaveness Digital’s primary revenue driver, the company has steadily expanded its product portfolio.

One key offering is Emissions, a tool designed to calculate and visualize the CO₂ footprint of maritime supply chains—often Scope 3 emissions for cargo owners. What began as a response to regulatory and sustainability pressure is increasingly becoming, in Kylstad’s words, a “hygiene factor.”

“Decarbonization used to be hype-driven,” she notes. “Now it’s operational. Companies want emissions data they can trust, and eventually, data they can use directly in decision-making.”

More recently, Klaveness Digital has moved into commercial shipping decision support with its Pre-Vetting solution. The platform addresses a longstanding industry challenge: vessel over-description. By supporting charterers with clearer, more structured vessel assessments before selection, Pre-Vetting brings transparency to a process traditionally shaped by fragmented information. To date, the platform has supported 14,000 to 15,000 vessel vettings, and adoption continues to grow.

Shipping Digital Maturity

Despite this progress, Kylstad is careful not to overstate where the industry stands. Asked to place maritime digitalization on a maturity scale, her answer is nuanced.

“We’ve definitely moved past proof of concept,” she says. “There are real investments, real platforms, and strong investor interest. But the industry is still fragmented.”

Trust remains a defining issue.

Shipping is, by nature, experience-driven, and while data is increasingly valued, it has not yet replaced intuition. Many innovations remain internal, developed as point solutions that struggle to scale across organizations.

A particular contradiction defines the current moment: widespread enthusiasm for artificial intelligence paired with deep reluctance around data sharing. “Everyone wants AI,” Kylstad observes, “but nobody wants their data to contribute to AI.”

That tension places digital solution providers in a delicate position, balancing innovation with governance, transparency and customer trust.

Data Hygiene and Efficiency

For companies still early in their digital journey, Kylstad points to data hygiene as the most critical first step. Clean, structured and accessible data unlocks nearly every downstream benefit digitalization promises.

Equally important is identifying repetitive, non-value-adding tasks, areas where automation and AI can free people to apply judgment rather than chase information. “The threshold for building tools today is very low,” she notes. “Organizations can empower teams to build and adapt solutions themselves, if the data foundation is right.”

The return on investment, she argues, is often immediate: fewer manual processes, faster decisions and reduced operational friction.

Where AI Excels—and Where It Doesn’t

At Klaveness Digital, AI is viewed as an enabler rather than a replacement. Internally, it accelerates prototyping, experimentation and product development, dramatically reducing the cost and time required to test new ideas.

Externally, AI’s strength lies in its ability to extract insight from messy, multi-source datasets, flagging anomalies, summarizing trends and highlighting changes that would otherwise go unnoticed.

What AI cannot yet do is replace domain judgment. Complex contractual decisions, risk assessments and accountability still require human oversight. “AI can prepare decisions,” Kylstad explains, “but explaining and standing by those decisions still belongs with people.”

Broadening the Talent Pool

Digitalization is also reshaping who can lead and succeed in shipping. As data, analytics and technology become core competencies, industry experience, while still of value is no longer the sole qualifier for leadership.

“A modern shipping company needs developers as much as it needs traditional maritime roles,” Kylstad says. At the same time, strong digital tools lower barriers for newcomers by providing clearer, explainable decision support that does not rely on decades of personal networks.

Digitalization’s influence extends beyond operations into recruitment and retention. For younger professionals, investment in digital tools is not optional, it is expected.

More importantly, digital efficiency offers something increasingly valued: time. Shipping remains a demanding, global, around-the-clock industry. Done right, digital tools can reduce pressure on operational roles and support healthier work-life balance.

“Efficiency has to translate into something meaningful for people,” Kylstad says. Companies that succeed in doing so, she believes, will gain a lasting competitive edge in attracting talent.

Looking ahead, Klaveness Digital is investing heavily in future-proofing its platforms. A next-generation version of CargoValue is currently rolling out, designed to be more modular, more customizable and fully AI-ready, without compromising SaaS scalability.

At the same time, the company continues to strengthen its engineering capabilities and invest in innovation, ensuring it remains ahead of evolving customer expectations.

“We’re building software that recognizes every customer has a unique context,” Kylstad says. “That balance—between standardization and flexibility—is where the industry is heading.”

While shipping remains a business steeped in a prevalence of smaller operators and tradition, its digital revolution is no longer theoretical. It is operational, commercial and increasingly unavoidable.

Companies like Klaveness Digital — grounded in maritime reality yet focused on technological possibility — are helping guide the industry through this transition.