OOCL Resorts to Artificial Intelligence

Hong Kong-based container shipping company Orient Overseas Container Line Limited (OOCL) is looking to boost its performance by applying Artificial Intelligence (AI) to its operations.

The company said that it has teamed up with Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA), Microsoft’s research arm, to explore the potential of AI research to improve network operations and achieve efficiencies within the shipping industry. The collaboration is expected to save OOCL USD 10 million in operation costs on an annual basis.

“With our Intelligent Cloud and Intelligent Edge vision, we are partnering with selected top customers worldwide to accelerate the adoption of AI innovations into products and solutions that can be applied in real business contexts. The partnership between MSRA and OOCL demonstrates our strong progress in revolutionizing the shipping industry,” Cally Chan, General Manager of Microsoft Hong Kong, said.

“Moving forward, we will embark on an 18-month joint-partnership in research and development to apply deep learning and reinforcement learning in shipping network operations. Moreover, MSRA will assist us in training over 200 AI engineers by conducting machine learning and deep learning sessions at the Hong Kong Science Park over the next 12 months,” Steve Siu, Chief Information Officer of OOCL, commented.

OOCL described AI as the key in its digital transformation vision. The company has already switched to a hybrid cloud infrastructure with auto-switching and auto-scaling throughout its businesses and machine learning for several years.

“OOCL processes and analyzes over 30 million vessel data every month. By leveraging AI technology and machine learning, the company develops predictive analytics on vessel schedules and berth activities,” the company said.

The company has a talent base of over 1,000 developers located in San Jose, Hong Kong, Zhuhai, Shanghai and Manila.