The invisible copilot
From the collision-avoidance systems now adopted by Ferretti and Azimut|Benetti to shipyards that plan by algorithm, artificial intelligence has come aboard. A survey of what is confirmed, what is still a promise, and what remains the captain’s responsibility.
On September 23, Ferretti Group announced the exclusive adoption of WATCHIT SENSE 360, the new generation of the collision-prevention system developed by the Israeli company Aqua Marina Tech.
According to the official release, the platform combines artificial intelligence, radar, AIS and navigation data, reading the digital chart against the yacht’s position and heading to anticipate both a collision and a grounding. What is new is the radar. The system works with the Simrad displays and HALO radars already on board, so it picks up vessels and objects that AIS never shows, including boats running with the transponder switched off or carrying none at all.
This is not the group’s first move in this direction. In February 2022, at the Miami International Boat Show, Ferretti Group announced its agreement with Aqua Marina Tech to adopt the first generation of WATCHIT on an exclusive basis. That system read the chart, the position and the route; integrating AIS later extended its watch to surrounding traffic. Radar is the third layer.
The announcement is not an outlier. It is the latest sign of a shift that, over the past twelve months, left the technology fairs and settled onto the bridge. Artificial intelligence entered yachting through its most necessary door, the watch. From there it is moving toward docking, engine management, shipyard planning and, still at the research stage, hull design.
The Watch
AI collision avoidance: a lookout that never tires
The principle is simple to state and difficult to execute. Radar sees echoes; AIS sees whoever chooses to transmit; a camera sees what the light allows. None of them, alone, can tell the buoy worth ignoring from the runabout about to cross the bow within seconds. That judgment is what AI contributes: fusing sources, plotting trajectories, filtering out noise and raising the alarm only when the risk is real. Ferretti Group describes a system that adapts on its own to open water, congested waters, harbors and anchorages, with no mode change required of the crew, and that issues visual and audible warnings only for genuine hazards.
Reading the Risk
An alert, not another alarm
The whole promise rests on one skill: telling things apart. According to its own documentation, WATCHIT assesses risk in real time, filters out noise and sends prioritized alerts to the displays already on the helm, with enough lead time for the crew to react. It draws on the GPS, AIS, depth sounder, engine and gear data and autopilot the boat already carries.
The system comes in two levels. SENSE works with the onboard sensors and its own nautical charts, and installs in about an hour. EYE adds a 4D imaging radar that detects buoys, personal watercraft and small fishing boats even in fog or darkness; because of that hardware, installation takes longer.
Azimut|Benetti
WATCHIT Eye: time before distance
Almost a year earlier, Italy’s other major group had moved first. In October 2025, the Azimut|Benetti Group R&D department and WATCHIT unveiled WATCHIT Eye, which the group describes as the first AI-based collision-prevention system for yachting. It pairs the onboard sensors with a custom-developed, high-frequency 4D imaging radar that detects and identifies targets at short range, unaffected by fog, rain or darkness.
According to Azimut|Benetti, the AI emulates the decision-making of an experienced captain and ranks the timing of an alert above the distance to the obstacle: what counts is how much time remains to react. The first yacht to carry it was the Azimut Fly 82, shown at the 2025 Cannes Yachting Festival and then at the Genoa International Boat Show, where the Seadeck 7 Hybrid was also exhibited with the system, now available across the group’s fleet.
One Developer
From the yard to the bridge
That the same developer works with both of Italy’s large groups says a good deal about how far the segment has matured. WATCHIT, whose official website lists Ferretti Group, Azimut|Benetti, Tankoa and Technohull among its partners, published a statistical analysis in May 2026 covering more than 57,000 events logged on 160 active vessels.
The study, carried out by an external data scientist, compared 34,232 maneuvers made after an alert with 9,203 maneuvers made without one on boats of similar classes. The finding: a maneuver made after an alert has a probability of roughly 77 percent of being calmer than a comparable maneuver made without one.
Statistical analysis published by WATCHIT · May 2026
Machine Vision
Seeing what does not transmit
Austria’s SEA.AI, founded in Linz in 2018, takes detection into different territory: machine vision. Its systems pair low-light optical cameras and thermal sensors with proprietary AI software to detect, classify and track floating objects by day and by night, from half-submerged containers to marine mammals or a person in the water, recognizable by thermal signature.
It is the kind of obstacle that defines the problem: it does not transmit, and it barely breaks the surface. The company reports more than 24 million annotated objects in its training database (as of March 2026) and more than 1,200 systems installed worldwide by mid-2026. Its Sentry unit is built for 360-degree watchkeeping aboard yachts and commercial vessels.
Artificial intelligence has joined the bridge as copilot. Command remains human.
USA Onboard Editorial
Docking
Docking without drama
If the watch is the most mature ground, docking is the most visible. In October 2025, Simrad, a Navico Group brand within Brunswick Corporation, introduced AutoCaptain, an autonomous maneuvering system that debuted at the Fort Lauderdale International Boat Show aboard the Boston Whaler 405 Conquest. Six integrated depth-perceiving cameras give it a 360-degree view. With that view, the system docks and undocks, repositions the boat over short distances inside the marina and holds it alongside the pier, compensating for wind and current.
Simrad stresses two traits. The system does not depend on returning to a location previously mapped by GPS; it adapts in real time to a marina it has never seen. And it is not sold as an accessory: it is factory installed, developed in exclusive partnership with Mercury propulsion and joystick piloting.
In January, Brunswick brought it to CES 2026 in Las Vegas, as part of what the company presented as its largest showcase of marine technology and AI-driven boating experiences. On display were a new Sea Ray SLX with AI-generated insights to assist with operation and navigation, a NAVAN C30 equipped with AutoCaptain, and a helm simulator with an AI copilot that assists with route planning, maneuvering, docking and situational awareness.
Avikus, the HD Hyundai subsidiary dedicated to autonomous navigation, approaches the same frontier from another angle. Its Neuboat line, for boats from 30 to 120 feet, includes Neuboat Navi, which uses a forward camera, LiDAR and an object-recognition unit to detect and classify what lies ahead, calculate collision risk and suggest an avoidance path. Neuboat Control goes a step further. It acts on throttle and steering to provide intelligent autopilot, adaptive cruise control that matches the speed of the boat ahead, and docking assistance.
The Engine Room
Engines that read data
In the engine room, AI is advancing more cautiously, and the manufacturers acknowledge as much. In September 2025, Rolls-Royce introduced the MTU 12V2000 M96Z, rated at 2,222 hp (1,634 kW), together with the integrated MTU NautIQ Bridge for series-production yachts of 30 to 40 meters. The engine delivers 220 hp more than its predecessor, the 12V2000 M96X, within virtually the same dimensions, and is approved to run on HVO, hydrotreated vegetable oil.
The company places both within its From Bridge to Propeller strategy, which relies on data analysis to reduce fuel consumption, raise efficiency and enable predictive maintenance and damage detection. On AI, the release is precise: the bridge is designed to integrate new functions, such as artificial intelligence systems. It is groundwork, not a feature already delivered.
The Shipyard
The shipyard as algorithm
Away from the water, AI is beginning to organize the work of the yard itself. In November 2025, Benetti announced a strategic plan to bring artificial intelligence into its Livorno headquarters, within the Custom Operations division, together with Quinn, the university consortium that has worked alongside Benetti since 1989 on advanced training and research. The first phase covers logistics, planning, production engineering and safety. Planned applications include automated checks on the booking portal for incoming materials, aligning deliveries with each yacht’s schedule and warehouse availability, and a prototype simulator for the three-year plan, able to process complex scenarios.
The project builds on earlier work, carried out between 2022 and 2024, in which the consortium analyzed information from every area of the company to identify opportunities for improvement and define AI-based solutions. Massimiliano Casoni, general manager of Benetti, called it a significant step in the history of yacht building.
In design, the official evidence is at an earlier stage and should not be overstated. To date, no yacht builder has officially announced a hull designed with AI.
The Balance
What stays in the captain’s hands
A year of announcements leaves a fairly clear map. AI is already real in watching the surroundings and is becoming real in docking. In the engine room, the infrastructure is in place, but the intelligence is still presented as a future capability. In the shipyard, it refines processes before it touches form. And in every case, the manufacturers themselves draw the same line: these systems assist; they do not replace. AutoCaptain requires an attentive captain; Neuboat Control, a competent operator at the helm; WATCHIT presents itself as a copilot.
A map in three stages
Where AI stands aboard
Already real
Watching the surroundings: systems that fuse radar, AIS, charts and cameras, and alert only to a genuine risk.
Under way
Autonomous docking, limited to short maneuvers inside the marina and always with the captain at the helm.
In preparation
Engines and shipyards: the infrastructure is ready, but the intelligence is announced as a future capability or as a process improvement.
For an owner, the useful question is no longer whether the next yacht will have artificial intelligence, but what exactly it does, with which sensors, under what conditions it stops seeing, and who answers when something fails. Stassi Anastassov, Global CEO of Ferretti Group, framed it when presenting WATCHIT SENSE 360: technology earns its place only when owner, captain and crew can feel the difference.
At sea, differences are usually measured in seconds. Artificial intelligence already knows how to win a few; deciding what to do with them is still the captain’s job.
USA Onboard · Editorial · 2026