This paper examines how shipping multinational enterprises (MNEs) leverage AI through ecosystems rather than as standalone firm-level tools. Drawing on Adner’s ecosystem-as-structure perspective, the study investigates how AI reshapes activities, actors, positions, and links. Empirically, the paper is based on qualitative data from 43 interviews across 29 firms, including shipowners and operators, charterers, shipbrokers, and software providers, complemented by field notes and observations. Using abductive thematic analysis in NVivo, the study identifies how AI integration reshapes workflows, encourages hybrid build-buy ecosystem architectures, and deepens data-driven interdependence across firms. The findings also show that AI alters roles and relationships by shifting trust and signaling dynamics, intensifying competition among providers, and creating new alignment challenges related to privacy, inertia, and regulation.

Dear colleagues and students,

I am delighted to invite you to the first session of our new initiative, the Maritime Hub seminar series. Information about future events will be available on the Maritime Hub website and circulated via similar invitations.

Our inaugural seminar will feature Agnieszka Nowinska, Associate Professor at Aalborg University, who will present her work titled:
AI Integration in Ecosystems and the Competitive Repositioning of Shipping Multinational Enterprises

Date: 9 April
Time: 13:00–14:00
Location: 3A07, Rued Langgaards Vej 7 (or Teams: https://teams.microsoft.com/meet/36404878668881?p=v0eoh6PFdGfMpHAlb5)
Open to: Staff and students

I hope you will be able to join us and engage in discussions,

Kind regards,
Jaike van Twiller