Presight and Quartermaster Partner to Advance AI-Powered Maritime Surveillance

Presight and Quartermaster have signed an agreement to explore AI-powered maritime surveillance in the UAE, combining ship-mounted sensors with advanced analytics to improve vessel tracking and security monitoring.

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Tracking activity across the world's oceans remains a challenge for maritime operators and security authorities. While satellites, coastal radar and vessel identification systems provide important information, no single technology offers a complete picture of what is happening at sea.

The challenge is particularly significant for international shipping, which carries more than 80% of global merchandise trade by volume, according to UN Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

UAE-based AI company Presight and US maritime technology firm Quartermaster have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to explore solutions that could improve maritime surveillance by combining distributed sensing technology with artificial intelligence.

Announced during ADIPEC 2026 in Abu Dhabi, the partnership will initially focus on the UAE, with potential expansion into other international markets.

The agreement covers possible applications in vessel tracking, anomaly detection, maritime security and the protection of critical offshore infrastructure.

Using Commercial Ships to Monitor Maritime Activity

Quartermaster's SmartMast technology is designed to turn existing commercial vessels into connected sensing platforms, allowing ships to collect information about activity in the surrounding waters while continuing their regular operations.

The system uses optical cameras, infrared sensors, radio-frequency technology and edge AI to capture and analyze maritime data.

Unlike surveillance systems that rely entirely on fixed infrastructure, this approach uses vessels already operating along shipping routes to extend monitoring coverage.

Under the proposed collaboration, data gathered through Quartermaster's technology could be combined with Presight's AI and advanced analytics platforms.

The companies aim to explore systems capable of identifying unusual vessel movements, detecting potential threats and supporting decisions made by maritime authorities, port operators and infrastructure managers.

Dr. Adel Alsharji, Chief Operating Officer of Presight, said:

"Maritime security is increasingly dependent on the ability to understand and respond to activity across vast, complex environments."

However, the agreement remains exploratory. Neither company has confirmed a joint deployment or provided technical performance results for the proposed integration.

Why Maritime Surveillance Needs More Than Vessel Tracking

The proposed technology addresses limitations in conventional maritime monitoring.

The Automatic Identification System (AIS), widely used in commercial shipping, broadcasts information including vessel identity, position, speed and direction.

Under International Maritime Organization regulations, AIS is mandatory for specified categories of commercial and passenger ships.

However, not every vessel is required to carry AIS, and transmissions may be switched off under certain security circumstances.

This means identification data alone cannot provide continuous visibility across every maritime area.

Other surveillance systems already combine multiple information sources.

The European Maritime Safety Agency, for example, uses satellite imagery alongside vessel identification data and behavioral information to provide a more comprehensive picture of maritime activity.

Quartermaster's approach could complement these systems by adding observations collected directly from commercial vessels.

The potential benefit lies not simply in gathering additional data, but in identifying which observations require attention and providing operators with useful information quickly enough to support decisions.

Turning Maritime Data Into Useful Intelligence

The agreement points to growing interest in using AI to process maritime information collected from different sources.

However, integrating these systems presents challenges. Sensor reliability, connectivity at sea, data quality and false alerts can all affect how useful automated surveillance becomes.

The companies have not disclosed the financial terms of the MoU, a deployment timeline or the number of vessels that might participate in an initial UAE project.

They have also not published joint performance benchmarks demonstrating improvements in detection accuracy or response times.

For maritime operators, the value of AI-powered surveillance will depend on whether it can help them identify genuine risks without overwhelming teams with unnecessary alerts.

The wider opportunity is to make better use of the vessels and infrastructure already operating at sea. Whether that translates into stronger maritime security will depend on how reliably the proposed systems turn distributed observations into information that operators can act on.