With the rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence, it’s fair to say there is more misunderstood than understood, particularly in conservative markets like maritime and ports. Adalberto ‘Berto’ Ponce, Co-Founder and CEO Of AI Strategic Solutions discusses with Maritime Reporter TV his organization’s experiences in working with ports and port facilities to help make operations more efficient and diversify revenue. With AI Strategic Solutions, it’s not about replace people or jobs, rather harnessing the cumulative knowledge of your crew and putting that to work with advanced AI.
If you spend enough time around ports and terminals, you hear the same refrain: we have the data, we just can’t use it.
For Berto Ponce, that disconnect isn’t just an operational nuisance, it’s the central challenge holding back efficiency across maritime and port operations.
And it’s exactly where his company is focused.
Ponce’s path to launching AI Strategic Solutions runs through more than a decade in IT consulting across defense and maritime, including work with U.S. Air Force programs tackling complex, legacy system environments. One experience in particular stuck with him: large-scale efforts to modernize systems that few people fully understood.
“Everyone wants the new shiny thing,” Ponce said. “But the biggest blocker is always the same, you don’t understand what you already have.”
That mindset traces back even further to his time at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), a school he describes with a mix of pride and candor.
“If you know RPI, you know we’re a bunch of nerds that are basically told, ‘Why not change the world?’” he said. “That stuck with me.”
It also helped shape a core belief that still underpins the company today: the hardest problems aren’t solved by software alone.
“They’re solved by interoperability and ingenuity.”
That philosophy is particularly relevant in maritime, where decades-old infrastructure—terminal operating systems, EDI messaging, proprietary platforms—still form the backbone of daily operations. While much of the industry is chasing modernization through replacement, Ponce and his team are taking a different route.
“We specialize in zero rip-and-replace,” he said. “There’s billions of dollars of infrastructure already in place. The question is: how do you unlock it?”
AI Strategic Solutions
Making Systems Communicate
At the heart of the issue, Ponce argues, is not a lack of technology, but a lack of connection.
Across most ports, critical data sits trapped in disconnected systems. Crane operators, gate clerks, dispatchers, customs officials, each relies on different inputs, often delivered in outdated formats that don’t easily translate across stakeholders.
The result is inefficiency at scale: delays at the gate, poor asset visibility, redundant workflows.
“We’re not here to eliminate the human,” Ponce said. “We’re here to eliminate the 300-plus silos that make their job harder than it needs to be.”
That’s where the company’s core solution, ForgeTrack, comes into play.
Rather than replacing existing systems, ForgeTrack acts as a connective layer, what Ponce calls a “universal translator” for global trade. It ingests legacy data formats, including traditional EDI messages, and converts them into real-time, usable information streams that can be shared across the ecosystem.
“Think of it like this,” he said. “You have the letter, but it’s written in a language your partner can’t read. What we do is translate it, in real time, into whatever format they need, and then translate it back when they respond.”
The practical impact is straightforward. Trucking companies know exactly when cargo is ready. Cargo owners gain visibility into container status. Regulators receive accurate, timely data. Ports, in turn, can move more cargo, more efficiently.
Measurable Gains Without New Hardware
In one U.S. port project tied to a zero-waste initiative, the company was tasked with tracking containerized waste streams across ship, truck and rail networks. The challenge wasn’t a lack of systems, it was a lack of alignment.
Multiple stakeholders needed the same data, but in different formats, at different times.
By creating a real-time data-sharing framework and translating legacy formats into a common, accessible stream, AI Strategic Solutions helped boost throughput by roughly 15%.
“No new cranes. No new sensors,” Ponce said. “Just better data flow.”
Cutting Through the AI Noise
While AI dominates industry headlines, Ponce is quick to temper expectations.
“AI is being used as an accelerator,” he said. “But most organizations don’t have the infrastructure in place to actually use it.”
Without a clear understanding of how operations function, who does what, what data they rely on, and how systems interact, AI risks becoming just another layer of complexity.
Equally important, he stresses, is keeping people at the center of decision-making.
“Human intuition can’t be replaced,” he said. “AI shouldn’t make the decision, it should help you get to the right person to make the decision.”
The Bigger Opportunity
For an industry under pressure to improve efficiency, reduce emissions and increase transparency, the opportunity is significant, but so is the gap.
While a handful of ports are pushing forward with advanced digital strategies, many others remain constrained by legacy systems and fragmented data environments.
Ponce believes the answer isn’t starting over, it’s connecting what’s already there.
“To understand where you’re going, you have to understand where you came from,” he said. “Once you do that, you can start unlocking real value.”
For AI Strategic Solutions, that value lies not in replacing infrastructure, but in finally making it work together.
Watch the full interview with Berto Ponce on Maritime Reporter TV.
