The Floating Wind Days conference brought together over 400 experts from 30 countries, highlighting the growing global interest in floating offshore wind energy. As the industry moves from pilot projects to commercial-scale deployments, discussions centered on overcoming significant challenges to scale and industrialize floating wind technology.
HTEC’s experts, Sava Marinkovich, Client Partner and thought leader in AI and Energy, and Zoran Gajić, Client Partner, Nordics, were on the spot, discussing the challenges and opportunities in the floating wind domain and how new technologies, including AI, can help streamline operations, enable smarter planning, accelerate deployment, reduce costs, and scale impact across projects.
What’s slowing down floating wind?
Floating wind brings many benefits and opportunities, enabling access to deeper waters with stronger, more consistent winds—far beyond the reach of fixed-bottom turbines. By expanding the range of viable sites, it supports greater energy yield and opens new markets for offshore wind development in regions with limited shallow seabeds.
However, floating wind also presents a unique set of challenges. The dynamic offshore environment—with stronger waves and currents—places greater demands on platform stability, mooring systems, and subsea infrastructure, all of which contribute to higher capital costs and engineering complexity that grows exponentially with project scale.
These factors often negatively affect time-to-market. Additionally, limited supply chain maturity and inconsistent standardization continue to impact scalability and long-term cost competitiveness.
Zoran observes the critical role of technology in the floating wind sector:
“Floating wind holds enormous potential, but the complexity of projects continues to challenge investor confidence. That’s where technology becomes a critical enabler. Tools like digital twins allow us to simulate and optimize designs early, reducing costly rework later in the process. Meanwhile, AI introduces entirely new opportunities—from predictive maintenance to dynamic, real-time monitoring and smarter, data-driven decision-making across the project lifecycle.”
As highlighted by Anette Holtedahl from Aker Solutions during the AI thought leadership panel, navigating the complexity of integrating AI into a massive organization with significant legacy systems is a complex undertaking. Still, the potential benefits make it a worthwhile pursuit—as the following section illustrates.
AI’s role in optimizing floating wind
In a very engaging session, Andreas Oscarsson from SeaTwirl challenged the audience with a bold vision: “Everyone is now talking about AI here and there, but why not use it from the very early design stage and let AI be an integral part of our new disruptive technology?”
Such timely and strategic use of AI helps navigate complexity, improve foresight, and enable more resilient, data-driven decision-making across the lifecycle of floating wind projects. Here’s how:
- Site selection and feasibility analysis: AI can analyze vast datasets—such as wind patterns, seabed conditions, and environmental constraints—to identify optimal sites faster and with greater accuracy. As Caroline Kiær from Vind AI demonstrated, lean and focused teams can build an accessible, AI-powered platform to support the early phases of floating wind development, improving both feasibility and long-term performance potential.
- Risk modelling and supply chain disruption forecasting: AI analyzes historical and real-time data to predict risks such as extreme weather events or equipment failures, enabling proactive mitigation. It also forecasts supply chain disruptions by identifying vulnerabilities in supplier networks and logistics, helping to minimize delays and optimize inventory management.
- Smarter procurement: Leveraging real-time data to forecast demand accurately, evaluate supplier performance dynamically, and optimize order timing—helping to reduce costs, prevent shortages, and improve overall procurement efficiency.
- Process optimization: AI analyzes detailed production and logistics data to identify bottlenecks and inefficiencies, enabling more precise scheduling and inventory management.
- Predictive maintenance: Analyzing real-time sensor data allows AI to detect early signs of wear or faults in turbines and mooring systems, helping to minimize costly downtime and extend asset lifespan in harsh offshore conditions.
AI learning points from other industries: Cross-pollinating AI innovations
AI has evolved beyond a mere technological upgrade—it’s fundamentally reshaping entire products and transforming how workforces operate across industries. Our speaker at the conference, Sava Marinkovich, HTEC Client Partner, emphasized that similar problem classes exist in other sectors, which could provide tremendous value by applying lessons learned from these areas. This cross-sector knowledge is crucial to unlocking AI’s full potential in floating wind and identifying the most impactful application areas. He also observed the importance of moving beyond isolated pilots to a scalable, organization-wide AI strategy:
“Many organizations get stuck in the pilot phase—not because the technology fails, but due to a lack of strategy for scaling. A strong business case, precision prototyping, and real-world validation are key steps, but real impact comes with a unified approach, organizational readiness, and data maturity. Too often, valuable data goes unused simply because teams and systems aren’t prepared to adopt AI at scale.”
Working with customers across industries, Sava has seen firsthand how AI is driving tangible results—from optimizing maritime logistics through real-time vessel tracking to boosting solar energy output using custom neural networks tailored to panel-level performance data. A common thread across these successful projects was a clear, scenario-specific strategy established from the outset. Equally important was strong cross-functional alignment—bringing together tech teams, business leaders, and domain experts to ensure that AI initiatives were grounded in practical needs, aligned with business goals, and capable of delivering lasting impact.
A digital-first strategy from the onset of every single project will bring tremendous value to floating wind
Floating wind holds tremendous potential and is expected to expand significantly in the coming years as technology matures and global demand for clean energy accelerates. But to capture that opportunity, organizations must act now. Embedding AI into their strategy from the start creates a competitive advantage and ensures they are prepared for the challenges and opportunities ahead. HTEC’s AI-native solutions support cost-efficient scalability and long-term viability. Get in touch to learn how we can assist.
