The challenge

In a world where overfishing threatens our oceans and food security, Fishway is on a mission to develop and produce sustainable, cultivated fish cells. With the fish supply gap projected to reach 62 million tons by 2030, Fishway is dedicated to providing an alternative to traditional fishing and aquaculture that minimizes environmental damage, eliminates animal harm and removes health risks like microplastics and antibiotics.

But innovation doesn’t come without hurdles. Fish biology is vastly under-researched and many fish genomes are still unsequenced, making it challenging to replicate fish at the cellular level. While the team has extensive experience in developing cell lines from mammals, adapting that expertise to fish cells remains a complex and data-heavy task. The vast amounts of research and experiment data, spread across numerous databases, made it difficult to extract meaningful insights and manage numerous parameters efficiently. 

To address this, Fishway wondered if AI-driven solutions could streamline research and accelerate their development timeline. With no prior AI knowledge, Agoria’s subsidized StartAI program offered them a unique opportunity to explore the company’s AI potential with Verhaert Digital as the AI expert of choice.

Approach & solution

During this pragmatic and hands-on program, the Verhaert Digital team visited the company’s labs to gain an in-depth understanding of its processes and machinery from an unbiased perspective. Together with all relevant stakeholders, we conducted a comprehensive Q&A, allowing us to gather detailed insights into their workflows and identify areas for improvement and AI opportunities.

Through a series of workshops, we mapped Fishway’s existing challenges and identified key opportunities for improvement. By prioritizing these based on feasibility and desirability, we help the team develop a tailored AI roadmap. After zooming in on their most impactful/prioritized AI opportunities, it became clear that the amount of data currently available was not enough to leverage AI’s predictive potential. This data telemetry and infrastructure gap is a struggle many companies face as they didn’t originally plan to incorporate AI technology. That’s because they often lack knowledge regarding its potential and, therefore, don’t see any added value in making their data infrastructure scalable. This definitely doesn’t mean the end of the AI journey. For Fishway, it was an eye-opener and an opportunity to prepare for the future. Now they know how to take this into account and go about this the next time they set up data-generating experiments that need to be optimized towards X (in this case, the yield of fish cells).

During the remainder of this StartAI program, we helped Fishway with an intermediate but scalable solution to organize data more efficiently, allowing for automatic data synchronization. This solution would make information more searchable and less prone to loss, as well as offer enhanced insights based on visualized patterns and data trends. In addition to outlining the key criteria for making their data AI-compatible in the short term, we also developed a long-term roadmap for integrating AI into their processes, ultimately driving their research forward.

“We learned a tremendous amount about AI in this program. It has given us the confidence and trust to lead the conversation on the opportunities for our projects.”

David Craeye, CTO at Fishway

Impact & results

The Fishway team is extremely satisfied with the outcomes of the program. The workshops were instrumental in mapping out AI opportunities, helping the team understand what AI could mean for the company and identifying the specific requirements in terms of cost, resources and technology. This clarity also provided valuable insights into the right software and digital infrastructure solutions for their needs.

Investors have also expressed strong approval of the program’s results. With a clearer understanding of AI’s potential, Fishway is now in a stronger position to make a compelling case for future AI applications, making it easier to secure funding for upcoming projects. Equipped with a clear, step-by-step roadmap, the company is ready to scale AI integrations across its operations, positioning itself for continued innovation and growth. One step closer to turning their mission of making cultivated fish into a reality!

Key takeaways

  • Even in highly specialized fields like biotech for fish production, AI can play a pivotal role in streamlining data management and analysis.
  • Tailoring solutions to a company’s specific needs and challenges, like understanding lab processes, ensures that the AI applications are relevant and scalable.
  • Successfully integrating AI doesn’t require an all-at-once approach. A phased roadmap allows companies to scale AI gradually while ensuring its smooth adoption across different processes.
  • If companies want to be able to leverage AI for a (long-term) project goal, involving AI expertise from the start helps to lay the foundation to do so successfully and with minimal effort.
Any questions?
Tell me all about them.

Jente Somers
Manager Innovation Acceleration

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