Technology giant Microsoft has teamed up with chemical tanker shipbroking and agency services firm SPI Marine on a project to bridge the gap between data and voyage decision making.

Using AI-powered data processing technology, shipbrokers, owners and charterers will be able to ask questions via a Question and Answer (Q&A) style search engine to gain real-time answers.

SPI Marine chief operating officer Mark Roberts said: “In order to grow and prosper, a leading modern shipbroker needs to be a powerful data processing and analytics company.