Image For Representation Purposes Only New research from Thetius and Marcura finds AI is already embedded in maritime workflows, but organisations are still working out how to assess the full human-AI process, from verification and accountability to governance, and where human judgement adds most value. Almost two-thirds (63%) of maritime professionals now use AI every day, according to new research from Thetius and Marcura. Yet only 8% describe their organisation as mature and governed in how it uses AI. More than half (55%) spend at least an hour each week checking or correcting what AI produces, with almost one in five spending five hours or more. Even so, 85% say AI saves them time overall once that checking is taken into account. The verification tax The report calls the time and attention spent checking AI-generated work the “verification tax”. The question now is how much of that verification is necessary. Trust remains qualified. When asked how much they trust AI-generated outputs, 57% placed themselves at the midpoint of a five-point scale. AI may have become part of everyday work, but confidence in its outputs is still catching up. Some checking is unlikely to disappear, nor should it. Seven in ten say they would always check an AI recommendation before acting on an important business decision, while 80% believe a named person should always remain accountable for a commercial decision, however capable AI becomes. Not all verification is necessary But other checking is driven by uncertainty. Most respondents encounter errors at least sometimes when checking AI output, and fewer than one in ten say their organisation’s data is fully ready for AI to rely on. If experience had shown an AI output to be reliable, 47% said they would spend much less time checking it. The opportunity, the report argues, is not to eliminate human oversight, but to make it proportionate: keep it where the consequences of getting something wrong demand it, and reduce unnecessar