Above algorithms and models, it is the people who matter. This conclusion became the guiding thread of a necessary conversation about the role of Artificial Intelligence in the blue bioeconomy, as well as what still needs to be done to turn this potential into reality.

Emotional intelligence in leadership: the key that AI cannot replace

Álvaro Sardinha, founder and CEO of the Center of Competence in Blue Economy, was direct: most leaders still do not have a deep understanding of the blue economy. They look at the sea with the perspective they know: those familiar with the shore see the shore; those familiar with fish see the fish.

But the blue economy is much more. It is the complete water cycle, biotechnology, offshore energy, and marine biodiversity. To lead in this space with AI as an ally, one must first understand the territory.

The message was emphatic: there will be no truly useful Artificial Intelligence without Emotional Intelligence. Effective leaders are those capable of asking the right questions, regulating technology, and directing it toward the common good. And what about those afraid of AI-driven unemployment? “No need. We will need more humans: humans who are more competent, more curious, and more capable of seeing beyond the obvious,” Álvaro Sardinha replied.

The ocean as a complex system: scarce data, immense potential

Kelwin Fernandes, CEO of NILG.AI, brought a pragmatic diagnosis to the table regarding the Portuguese reality: the national economic fabric is mostly composed of micro and small service companies. The ocean, in turn, demands scale, and scale requires investment, time, and data.

And here lies one of the biggest obstacles. Unlike what happened with the internet and social networks, which fed generalist AI models with large amounts of open data, the ocean does not have such a repository. Data exists, but it is fragmented, dispersed, and often locked away in company and institutional drawers.

The solution necessarily involves collaboration. Ocean-related companies need to unite to collect, share, and leverage their data. Only then can truly powerful AI tools be built for the sector. In this context, initiatives such as the Common European Data Spaces emerge as fundamental infrastructures to create data markets that encourage sharing and generate value for all participants.

Digital twins, aquaculture, and the AI that has already reached the sea

The concrete examples shared at the roundtable reveal that AI in the ocean is not science fiction: it is a reality under construction.

Guilherme Beleza Vaz, founder and CEO of blueOASIS, presented inspiring cases. In the Azores, digital twins of marine areas, such as Monte Condor, combine sensors, acoustics, and animal tagging (sharks, whales, rays) to create dynamic, real-time representations of the ecosystem. The animals themselves function as living sensors, transmitting data that feed models capable of simulating future scenarios.

João Claro, chairman and CEO of INESC TEC, added a crucial perspective. In the ocean, there is not just one digital twin; there are several, with different dimensions and geographies. Therefore, he argued, ocean data, despite growing, remain fragmented, making their intelligent aggregation a priority.

This is where AI plays a decisive role in coordinating multiple digital twins, extracting the most relevant information for ecosystem management, pollution monitoring, and other critical challenges. The goal is not only to observe the ocean in real time but also to create scenarios, anticipate consequences, and make data-driven decisions.

In aquaculture, the advances are equally significant. AI applied to species identification, disease detection, weight estimation, and monitoring fish behavior through cameras and acoustics is reducing operational costs, lowering carbon emissions, and increasing production sustainability. Fewer divers, fewer interventions, less ecosystem disturbance, and more real-time data for smarter decisions. Norway has been doing this for salmon for 15 years. According to Guilherme Beleza Vaz, Portugal could follow the same path with its own species.

Asking the right questions: the lesson from blue biotechnology

One of the most striking moments of the conversation was the reflection on how we approach data and AI models. Kelwin Fernandes shared an experience from the healthcare field that has enormous applicability to the ocean: for years, they built complex models based on extensive and costly clinical trials. When they changed their approach, using expert interviews to identify the patterns they were actually observing and asking AI to recognize them in the images, the results surpassed everything they had achieved before.

As Kelwin Fernandes emphasized, the lesson is powerful: the AI era is not just about having more data; it is also about asking the right questions. Applied to the ocean and blue biotechnology, this means rethinking the approach to scientific discovery. The last two Nobel Prizes in Physics and Chemistry, noted the CEO of NILG.AI, were awarded for work directly related to AI, including the discovery of molecules with potential to cure diseases. Blue biotechnology, with its immense diversity of marine organisms still to be studied, is at the forefront of this revolution.

What is missing: infrastructure, public policies, and education

João Claro emphasized that the greatest challenge in the blue economy is the intersection of emerging technologies with equally emerging value chains. The solution lies in shared infrastructures that accelerate collective learning, clear validation and de-risking pathways that give confidence to entrepreneurs and investors, and public policies that create agile and robust conditions for experimentation, such as living labs and regulatory sandboxes.

But the starting point, all participants reiterated, is education. Estonia’s model was mentioned by Álvaro Sardinha as inspiration, based on a program where students do not receive answers from AI tools, they receive questions. “This is how generations are trained to navigate, question, and shape a technological future that serves the planet,” he pointed out.

It is at this intersection of education, leadership, and technology that the future of the blue bioeconomy is being built. The ocean covers 97 percent of Portuguese territory. For too long, it has been ignored. Artificial Intelligence will not solve the problem on its own, but it can be the tool that changes this relationship.