Leveraging artificial intelligence for sustainable development and policy integration in the shipping industry

An AI-assisted evidence-synthesis and literature-mapping review of post-2005 research found differences in emphasis between sustainable-shipping engineering and policy literature. The study examined how technical and policy research align around propulsion and sustainability, finding that engineering work placed strong emphasis on electrification and noise reduction, while policy discourse focused more on emissions and renewable-energy targets. The abstract also concludes that sustainability in the shipping literature is explicitly multidimensional and cannot be reduced to emissions alone.

According to the article abstract, the researchers developed an AI-assisted framework that normalizes and compares concept intensities across technical and policy-oriented corpora. Its stated purpose is to examine research on sustainable shipping and propulsion technologies and provide a structured basis for a policy framework supporting a sustainable maritime agenda. The authors describe the workflow as a modular decision-support tool that could help identify topic misalignments, track changes in themes over time and support policy monitoring.

The abstract connects the framework’s policy relevance to United Nations Sustainable Development Goals 7, 9, 12, 13, 14 and 17, covering affordable and clean energy, industry and infrastructure, responsible consumption and production, climate action, life below water and partnerships for the goals. These links represent the study’s stated relevance rather than evidence that the workflow has already improved environmental, operational or policy outcomes. The authors also present the AI-assisted process as a transparent sense-making mechanism that could be adapted to other industries undergoing sustainability-driven technological transitions.

The available evidence is limited to the publisher-provided abstract and article information for an accepted research article; the full study cannot be assessed from the supplied material. The abstract does not specify the number of documents included, search databases, AI methods, quality-assessment procedures, validation tests or uncertainty estimates for the concept mapping. Consequently, the reliability and reproducibility of the results cannot be independently evaluated. The publisher notes that the accessible version is an early version subject to further edits and will be replaced by the final Version of Record.

Subject of Research: AI-assisted literature mapping of sustainable shipping research and policy priorities

Article Title: Leveraging artificial intelligence for sustainable development and policy integration in the shipping industry

Article References: Stavroulakis, P. J., Alexandraki, N., Sarigiannidou, R., & Orsopoulou, S. (2026). Leveraging artificial intelligence for sustainable development and policy integration in the shipping industry. Discover Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43621-026-04893-0

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1007/s43621-026-04893-0

Keywords: artificial intelligence, sustainable shipping, shipping policy, propulsion technologies, electrification, noise reduction, emissions, literature mapping, policy monitoring, Leveraging, artificial, intelligence