Sea’s AI assistant searches the contracts behind a freight deal

A ship’s loading clock can turn on two words: “unless used”. In BIMCO’s laytime definitions, an excluded period does not count towards the allowed loading or discharging time even if work happens during it. Adding “unless used” means the time actually worked during that otherwise excluded period counts, once laytime has begun. The definitions apply when incorporated into the contract.[5]

An answer that compresses both arrangements into “weekends excluded” would lose the distinction. It is the kind of detail that makes shipping-contract search a demanding application for AI: the reader needs the wording, the agreed version and its context, not just a broadly sensible description.

Maritime software company Sea launched Cora on 1 October inside its Contract Management software. The assistant lets chartering, legal and operating teams ask questions across their charter-party and recap portfolios, compare wording and find terms previously agreed with a counterparty. Sea says it is trained for maritime language and clause structures. Its announcement establishes the product’s intended functions; it does not publish an independent accuracy study.[1]

A useful answer needs a contractual address

A charter party sets the terms of a shipping arrangement; a recap records the main terms agreed while fixing the deal. Cora works within Sea Contracts and Recap Manager, using clauses and text-based main terms already held in the platform. According to Sea’s documentation, it sees only information the user is explicitly permitted to access within the account.[2]

This makes a question about a past agreement different from a question about shipping in general. The useful response has to identify what this company accepted with this counterparty for this deal. An older concession may explain a negotiation without being the current company preference.

Suppose, as a simplified illustration, a draft excludes Sundays from laytime and another agreement adds “unless used”. If cargo work takes place for six hours on Sunday while agreed laytime is still running, the first wording excludes those hours; the second counts the six hours actually used. We have not tested this example in Cora. It shows why retrieving the modifying words matters before anyone calculates a bill.[5]

Laytime is the agreed period for loading or discharging without an additional payment beyond freight. Demurrage is the agreed payment for qualifying delay after that time expires. Laytime exceptions do not carry over to demurrage unless the charter party specifically says so. The full contract and operational circumstances govern an actual claim.[5]

The standard clause is a reference point

Cora’s launch follows a September integration that put BIMCO clauses inside Sea’s contract workflow. BIMCO confirmed that users could check draft contracts against its standards and receive updated clauses automatically. That supplies a maintained reference against which a question about changed wording can be investigated.[3]

Sea’s account of the integration makes a useful distinction: the comparison can surface an outdated version, an unintended edit or a deliberate negotiated amendment. A difference is something to review. The software cannot treat every departure from a standard clause as a mistake without erasing legitimate commercial negotiation.[4]

The company’s product documentation says Cora can compare clauses across the portfolio and surface potentially missing provisions or inconsistent wording. It also says proprietary clauses, charter parties and conversation history are not fed into public model training. These are the supplier’s stated access and data-use arrangements.[2]

The commercial opportunity is to make previous agreements easier to use while a new one is taking shape. A negotiator could retrieve a former exception, inspect the original wording and decide whether the circumstances justify accepting it again. That decision remains with the team. The useful end product is a particular clause they can open and discuss while the other side is still negotiating.

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