Opening with a concrete example of AI-enabled underwater monitoring systems, Fernandez illustrated how the ocean is, for the first time, becoming continuously visible. From real-time ecosystem monitoring to illegal fishing detection, coastal risk modelling and accelerated marine biotechnology discovery, artificial intelligence is unlocking access to data that was previously slow, fragmented and costly to obtain.

This shift, she argued, has the potential to transform how the ocean is protected, financed and managed.

However, increased visibility alone does not guarantee better outcomes.

“AI is not the answer. It is the multiplier,” she stated, emphasising that artificial intelligence does not solve systemic challenges, but rather accelerates the systems it is applied to. If aligned with regenerative and sustainable models, AI can enhance protection and resilience. If misaligned, it can accelerate extraction, deepen inequalities and reinforce existing imbalances.

For Fernandez, the core challenge is not technological, but structural.

“These are not technical questions. They are governance, capital, ethics, sovereignty and power questions.”

Throughout her keynote, she challenged the audience to confront the implications of AI-driven decision-making. Through interactive scenarios, participants were placed in real-world dilemmas involving trade-offs between ecological protection, economic stability and social impact. These exercises highlighted a critical shift: decisions are increasingly influenced by probabilistic models, often at a distance from the communities most affected by their outcomes.

In this context, the question is no longer whether to use artificial intelligence, but how much authority to delegate to it.

Fernandez also drew attention to a less visible dimension of the AI transition: its environmental and social costs. From energy and water consumption to resource extraction, the very systems designed to protect the ocean may also contribute to pressures on ecosystems and vulnerable communities if not developed responsibly.

Her message was clear: adopting AI without intentional governance risks accelerating the very challenges it aims to solve.

As the ocean economy continues to evolve, Fernandez highlighted the responsibility of current decision-makers — from policymakers and investors to researchers and entrepreneurs — to actively shape the frameworks that will govern these technologies.

“The future will not be defined by what Ocean AI is capable of doing,” she concluded, “but by what we are willing to defend when it matters.”

Blue Wink-E 2026 reinforced the urgency of this conversation, positioning Portugal and its innovation ecosystem as active contributors to the global discussion on responsible and scalable ocean innovation.