Artificial intelligence continues to move from the fringes of marine technology into the everyday tools sailors and professional mariners rely on. This week, Hefring Marine and SEA.AI announced a new partnership aimed at bringing AI enhanced vision and onboard analytics together to elevate safety and situational awareness at sea.
Hefring Marine, an Icelandic marine technology company known for its intelligent maritime analytics, will integrate SEA.AI’s machine vision collision avoidance technology with its IMAS platform. The result is a combined system designed to help operators better understand what is happening both around the boat and within it.
Hefring Marine’s IMAS platform uses AI sensor data and edge computing to provide real time operational intelligence. It is designed to support safer decision making while improving efficiency and sustainability across a wide range of vessels. SEA.AI brings a different but complementary capability to the table, using optical and thermal cameras paired with artificial intelligence to detect and identify floating objects in real time, including hazards that can be difficult to spot by eye or radar alone.
“At Hefring Marine, our mission is to empower vessel operators by enhancing safety, efficiency and sustainability through intelligent technology,” said Karl Birgir Björnsson, CEO of Hefring Marine. “This partnership with SEA.AI allows us to offer our clients an even more comprehensive solution that combines operational intelligence with advanced collision avoidance capabilities. Together, we are setting a new standard for maritime safety and performance.”
By integrating the two systems, operators gain a more complete picture of both external risks and onboard performance. The companies say the combined technology is intended to improve situational awareness, streamline operations and support compliance with increasingly strict environmental regulations by helping crews operate more efficiently.
SEA.AI CEO Marcus Warrelmann sees the partnership as a natural extension of his company’s focus on maritime machine vision. “Partnering with Hefring Marine solidifies SEA.AI’s position as a pioneer in maritime smart vision technology,” Warrelmann said. “By joining forces with such an advanced analytics platform, we are creating an integrated ecosystem that addresses the full spectrum of maritime operational needs.”
SEA.AI has been developing machine vision systems for maritime use since 2018, offering solutions that combine AI with optical and thermal sensors for recreational commercial and government vessels. Hefring Marine’s IMAS platform is already used across multiple workboat sectors to support safety fuel efficiency and data driven fleet management.
For cruising sailors and offshore operators alike, the collaboration signals how quickly AI based tools are becoming more integrated into onboard systems. Rather than standalone gadgets, future safety technology increasingly points toward unified platforms that help crews see more, know more, and respond faster at sea.
