Microsoft Research Asia (MSRA) and Orient Overseas Container Line Limited (OOCL) have announced their partnership in applying artificial intelligence (AI) research to improve network operations and achieve efficiencies within the shipping industry. The collaboration is expected to nurture over 200 AI developers over the next 12 months.

MSRA is Microsoft’s applied research arm in the Asia Pacific region and a leading research community for core AI technologies including machine learning. It has access to cutting-edge technologies and the best researchers in the world who continue to invent new algorithms and solutions to push the start of the art and to fulfill different customer needs.

OOCL has been a pioneer in leveraging technology to make a real business impact and accelerate customer value, in which AI is the key in their digital transformation vision. The company has a talent base of over 1,000 developers located in San Jose, Hong Kong, Zhuhai, Shanghai, and Manila. It has fully embraced 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. “With MSRA’s efforts and expertise, we expect to save around $10 million in operation costs annually by applying the AI research and techniques for optimizing shipping network operations,” said Steve Siu, chief information officer of OOCL. “Moving forward, we will embark on an 18-month partnership in research and development to apply deep learning and reinforcement learning in shipping network operations.”

MSRA will also assist OOCL 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. “We look forward to strengthening our partnership with MSRA to leverage AI research and innovations to drive digital transformation in the shipping industry,” said Siu, “and to exchange knowledge among our top developers so that we can better address customer needs with advanced technologies and predictive analytics.”