First natural language interface in maritime safety software gives shoreside fleet managers and safety officers a new way to monitor and analyze permit activity across their fleet. 

Helsinki, Finland: NAPA, the global provider of maritime software and data services, has launched an AI-powered Permit to Work (PtW) Dashboard within NAPA Fleet Intelligence, its cloud solution. The functionality, which is live now and adopted by Virgin Voyages and Ritz-Carlton Yacht Collection fleets, gives shoreside fleet managers and safety officers a natural language interface – one of the first in maritime software – for permit analytics. This allows them to describe the data views they need in plain English and receive interactive, reusable, and customizable dashboards instantly across multiple vessels, time periods and dimensions.  

The launch of NAPA’s AI-powered PtW coincides with the International Maritime Organization’s Day of the Seafarer. This is an active investment in addressing shipping’s growing safety gap, as new technologies and regulations are introduced. Growing regulatory and administrative pressures introduce processes that are safety-critical, audit-sensitive, and heavily dependent on accurate record-keeping across multiple vessels simultaneously. Research by the International Seafarers’ Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN) found that 54% of seafarers report increased workload and 44% report higher stress levels. Manual administrative tasks, including permit management and safety reporting, can account for up to 20% of crew time. NAPA’s own benchmarking with customers indicates that digitizing record-keeping with NAPA Logbook can recover up to 2,000 administrative hours per ship per year.

The new AI functionality is part of NAPA’s broader, multi-product and multi-year AI roadmap to strengthen maritime safety.

The plan is focused on a principle-based approach to implementing AI where it adds operational value to both crew and shore teams. In May 2026, for example, NAPA released its AI-assisted cargo loading functionality within NAPA Stability, developed in collaboration with Stena Line for RoRo and ferry operations, which reduces cargo planning time from 1-1.5 hours to 10-15 minutes per departure.

The roadmap includes active development across NAPA Fleet Intelligence, focusing first on shoreside support, including anomaly detection in NAPA Logbook and Voyage Reporting, then extending to NAPA Logbook, Permit to Work, and Voyage Reporting functionalities onboard.

Sami Koponen, Product Owner, Cloud, Safety Solutions, NAPA, added: “The sequencing of this roadmap is deliberate: cloud-first, because that is where we can iterate fastest and at lowest cost, then onboard as each use case matures. What ties the program together is a single question we ask before committing to any AI capability: Does this genuinely improve efficiency and accuracy? If the answer is not a clear ‘yes’, we do not build it. Launching the AI functionality for PtW on Day of the Seafarer felt like the right moment to say clearly that this work is already underway, and that it is built for the people who keep our industry safe.” 

NAPA’s new cloud-based AI-powered PtW transforms the way fleet managers and safety officers interact with data and oversee permit activity across their vessels. Real-time insights from intuitive, smart technology strengthen the ship-to-shore connection and turn operational data into actionable fleet intelligence at a speed that keeps pace with the demands of shipping’s growing regulatory stack today. The result is less time spent on administrative tasks, faster, better data-informed decision-making across teams, and stronger safety oversight across the fleet.

Tommi Vihavainen, Product Owner, NAPA Permit to Work, Safety Solutions, NAPA, commented: “The AI-powered PtW Dashboard addresses a problem every fleet manager, particularly across cruise and ferry operations, recognizes too well: the data exists, but getting the right view of it across the whole fleet, in real time, has always required manual effort or technical support. Applying AI to tackle this challenge was both a natural evolution and a well-thought-out solution. Rather than applying AI for the sake of it, we carefully evaluated the problem and built a solution that could embed itself seamlessly into existing operational workflows. Our goal is always to make the lives of our end users easier.”

NAPA’s approach to AI and the underpinning privacy architecture distinguish it from many AI tools entering the maritime sector. The model is trained in the structure of permit data, not on operational data itself. When a user submits a query, the system generates chart logic, which is then applied client-side to live fleet data. Raw operational data does not pass through the AI layer.

Marco Carsjens, Fleet Captain, Virgin Voyages, said: “Managing permit activity across a fleet used to mean waiting for reports or trawling through data manually. NAPA’s new AI dashboard removes that inefficiency and provides us with a data-secure, clear picture of what’s happening across the fleet just by asking for it. We can build and save our own, customized dashboards without any technical support, which means it is a tool we can actually use every day. It’s this element of usability that NAPA understands intimately and has made them indispensable to our teams.”

NOTES TO EDITORS  

About Virgin Voyages

Promising to Create an Epic Sea Change for All, Virgin Voyages is the award-winning, adults-only cruise line founded by Sir Richard Branson. Delivering unforgettable, relaxing vacations at sea, Virgin Voyages launched at the end of 2021. Inspired by superyacht design, its fleet of Lady Ships exemplify an elevated, boutique hotel at sea with contemporary spaces that strike the perfect balance of nautical chic and glamour. Currently departing from the alluring cities of Miami, Barcelona, Athens and Seattle, the fleet offers more than 60 unique itineraries, sailing to 150+ incredible ports of call. On-board, 20+ eateries feature culinary experiences from Michelin-starred chefs, stylish workout spaces and group fitness classes, and a festival-like line-up of intimate and larger-than-life shows are on the agenda. Paired with modern, tech-savvy cabins, designer suites fit for a rockstar and a mermaid-inspired spa and thermal suite, the brand is taking the industry by storm. For three consecutive years – 2023, 2024 and 2025 – Virgin Voyages won best cruise line in Travel + Leisure’s highly coveted World’s Best Awards for mega-ship ocean cruise line, along with the 2023 and 2024 Condé Nast Traveler’s Readers’ Choice Awards for best large ocean cruise line. 

About NAPA   

NAPA is a leading provider of software and digital services for the global maritime industry, harnessing data science to enable safer, more sustainable and future-proof shipping. Founded in 1989 to provide smart solutions for ship design, NAPA is now the global reference in shipbuilding, with over 90% of new vessels built by NAPA customers. Today, the company’s expertise spans the entire lifecycle of a ship, from shipyard to sea, covering design, operational safety and efficiency. Over 3,000 commercial ships globally sail with NAPA safety and efficiency solutions, which include digital ship stability systems that enable a proactive approach to safety at sea, cloud-based performance monitoring that delivers insights to unlock new operational efficiencies, and voyage optimization solutions that help reduce greenhouse gas emissions from voyages. Headquartered in Finland, NAPA employs over 230 experts and operates globally, with a presence in Japan, Korea, China, Singapore, the USA, Germany, Greece, Romania and India. For more information, visit: www.napa.fi 

Press contact
Chandralekha Mukerji
Director, Global Communications and PR
T: +358 408273014
E: chandralekha.mukerji@napa.fi

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