Dmytro Afanasiev on Identifying Digital Breakthroughs Across Industries

The subject of automation has come front and center in shipping circles as the International Maritime Organisation prepares for its important 110th Maritime Safety Committee meeting. With their executives confidently saying, “The technology is here!” major industry players like Rolls-Royce are aggressively testing autonomous ships in Nordic waters. Though talks on future autonomous boats are underway, a more immediate emergency is the increasing scarcity of skilled maritime officers. 

BIMCO has said that a shortage of 17,000 personnel seriously threatens the stability of the sector. Tech businessman Dmytro Afanasiev has been covertly changing conventional sectors by using artificial intelligence to meet the most pressing operational problems of today, whereas many are focused on the unmanned craft of the future. Having founded Crew Recruitment Services, he has built one of Ukraine’s major maritime recruiting companies, noted for its unusual approach. His ‘smart recruitment’ method has helped the company to meet placements more quickly, lowering candidate search and preparation time by around half. 

Already, this system has helped almost 10,000 experts onto worldwide boats, demonstrating the real benefits of artificial intelligence long before autonomous ships come into being. Afanasiev’s technological vision extends much beyond the marine industry. With an original interactive dental formula, his SaaS solution, Dentist Plus, has onboarded more than 500 clinics across three continents. He also unveiled Dentist24.online in 2017, one of the first artificial intelligence-driven tools for predictive ordering and management of dental clinic inventory.

Having previously sold Dentist Plus to a major pharmaceutical company in Kazakhstan, Afanasiev offers insightful advice in this interview on finding digitization opportunities in unusual places, dealing with resistance to innovation inside established sectors, and his strategies for creating technology businesses especially made for successful exits.

How does Dymtro assess which industries are prepared for digital transformation and the steps he takes to quickly grasp their specifics and challenges?

The information maturity of the sector helps him to assess this. Usually, the most viable industries and consultants for digital transformation are those that have a high volume of data but use it inefficiently. When he changed seamlessly from sailor to co-owning a recruiting firm with Crew Recruitment Service (CRS) in 2007, and later entering the dental field with Dentist Plus in 2015, Dymtro followed a particular approach. At first, he went through the company procedures, interacting with the staff on the ground instead of with management. Along with obtaining real-world knowledge, he spoke with other recruiters still processing paper resumes of sailors and sending papers by fax.

Later on, he identified the pain points in the marine industry, which included the sluggish speed of document processing and the increased likelihood of mistakes in certificate validation. Managing dental supply inventories and planning purchases efficiently presented problems in the profession. When the transaction expenses resulting from poor operations become significant, an industry is considered prepared for a digital revolution. Technology should not be sought for its own sake; rather, what is vital is a solution that considerably improves the lives of end users.

How did Crew Recruitment Services achieve such rapid growth in a market that had been competitive for decades?

Starting their company in their early 20s, while rivals averaged over 35, the founder thinks this success is attributable to their fresh attitude towards the business and their early development of a proprietary digital database, many easily available technology improvements, and gaining customer satisfaction techniques. Traditionally rigid, the marine recruitment industry was strongly shaped by seasoned experts following established customs. 

This firm was concentrating on building digital systems to improve speed and efficiency, whereas some depended on Rolodexes and paper records. Furthermore, a great team, hard work, and commitment would have been needed to make this success possible. By gathering younger, tech-savvy experts who welcomed innovative approaches, they offered a significant advantage in flexibility and implementation velocity.