Anna Helena Hultberg, Head of Operations at Orbit, leads a team of seven who work at the intersection of weather, vessels, and daily maritime operations. Her team’s expertise comes from the route advice and optimisation services that she has cultivated at Gale Force, a company that was acquired bt Orbit in 2025 and sits under the Orbit umbrella as Orbit Marine Services.
“For me, it is about taking the experience and knowledge we have built within the route advice and optimisation services and combine it with OrbitMI’s technology and platform,” Anna explained. This combination has opened up a world of access and innovation in the maritime arena.
As she sees it, Marine Services is about bringing together data, technology, automation, and AI with the knowledge and experience of people who understand weather, vessels, and daily maritime operations. But alongside the technology, Anna touched on the people. “We also have a very helpful and down-to-earth culture,” she said. “We work well together, care about our customers, and try to find good solutions.” That’s the culture she hopes to hold onto as the team keeps developing here at Orbit.
One of the things Anna mentioned throughout our conversation is how her team communicates data and insights in a way customers actually understand. Many of Orbit’s customers are already very experienced and know the industry well, so the job isn’t about explaining the basics. “It is more about showing how we can solve the problems they may be facing today by using our system and how our service could help them in their day-to-day work,” she explained.
For Anna and her team, this means going beyond the numbers. “It is important to explain what the information actually means for the vessel and the voyage,” she added. When they write about data, they do so in a way that can be understood by anyone–not just someone in the meteorologist field–and they adapt information depending on the specific customer and situation.
Our discussion then transitioned over to AI, where the same clarity carried over. “I am not afraid that AI will take over everything we do,” she emphasized. “I think AI and automation will become important tools and help us work faster and manage much more data. But I still believe that humans are needed.”
Weather forecasts, she pointed out, always carry some uncertainty, and that uncertainty can shift between forecast updates. “Technology can help us identify this,” she said, “but experience is still needed to understand what the uncertainty means for a specific vessel and voyage and to make the best overall assessment.”
To be confident in making judgments, Anna expressed not to underestimate the power of human contact. Anna emphasized that clients appreciate having someone they know and trust–someone they can reach out to and talk things through with. “I believe the best result comes from combining technology with human knowledge and judgement,” she said. “We cannot remove all uncertainty, but we can help people feel more confident in the decisions they make.”
When asked what advice she’d give someone in the industry, Anna didn’t hesitate: communication. “Do not underestimate the importance of communication,” she said. “You can almost always communicate more, and it is important to listen and make sure that people understand each other.” Especially in an industry that can be heavily reliant on technology, maintaining the human touchpoints behind the work is what sets Orbit apart.
She added one more piece to that. “You should also stay curious, try to look outside the box, and never stop developing,” she said. “Technology is moving quickly, and we need to continue learning and keep up with the changes.” She carries this mentality throughout her work at Orbit and encourages others to do the same.
