Improving the sustainability, efficiency, productivity and growth of players in the blue food space, particularly in the aquaculture sector, through the application of digital technologies such as AI and data analytics is at the heart of Cognizant Ocean, explained the new business group’s global head, Stig Martin Fiskå.
Global IT services company Cognizant unveiled Oslo-based Cognizant Ocean earlier this year. Focused on the blue economy and with an international team sitting across Europe and North America, it has four central areas of interest: blue carbon – to decarbonise the oceans and reduce greenhouse gas emissions; blue energy and the harnessing of renewable ocean power; blue transport – with the aim to develop efficient and sustainable transport solutions for maritime and coastal activities; and blue food – promoting sustainable and responsible practices in aquaculture and marine food production.
Aligned with Cognizant Ocean’s launch is a new partnership with Tidal, a project inside X, Alphabet’s Moonshot Factory, which will make Tidal’s ocean information platform much more widely available, starting with the farming of aquatic foods.
“It’s all about creating healthy and sustainable oceans and growing the blue economy while doing that,” Fiskå told WF. “For most people, there’s no longer any doubt that improving sustainability requires the creation of more efficiency and also leverage economic advantages. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy or straightforward to do. That’s the key thing for us; we want to take advantage of the economic goal levers that actually lead to change and operationalise sustainability. That’s what we are all about.”
Striking a balance between sustainability and growth is crucial, he insists.
“We are looking to lower the cost per kilo to produce more finfish, but this cannot be a cost on sustainability. We need improvements in both. So, what we’re audaciously saying is that we want to help grow more fish to feed the world sustainably; and what motivates us is being able to do that while knowing for sure know what the costs will be. We know how important fish can be and we want it to be utilised more and better – helping everyone.”
Business-oriented
According to Fiskå, Tidal’s AI-built and tested platform can, amongst other things, incorporate AI and perception technology to track fish behaviour to better understand fish and help farmers gauge when they are hungry to increase feeding precision. This will help reduce the amount of carbon released by uneaten food. Additionally, farmers will be able to utilise data on environmental, biological and market conditions to optimise their business strategies.
“It’s a mature product that has already been commercialised and is in successful use today. In my opinion, it has the potential to totally digitalise and change the way the whole aquaculture industry is run,” he said.
“We’ve observed that this industry has been looking for solutions in this area – looking for a wholesome way of doing an end-to-end value chain, but perhaps it’s not been finding the best and most integrated solutions in the fish pens, when it comes to data and trustworthy ways of measuring it. There are some other solutions available, but this one is, to my mind, capable of taking care of almost everything.”
One of the things that sets the Cognizant Ocean/Tidal offering apart is the combination of excellent software and hardware, reckons Fiskå.
“There are a lot of companies that are either good on hardware or good on software, and then you have the Teslas and Apples of this world – companies that fuse the two. I think the legacy of Google in this instance [X was formerly Google X] is exactly where they come from; they have really, really powerful software and then they have added on really good people focused on hardware too. There’s a balance, with the two sides working together to create something new that’s beyond other solutions.
“For us – at Cognizant Ocean – it’s about the opportunity this gives us to have an end-to-end value chain – integrating the data to optimise it and make it a business-oriented platform. That’s where we see its value,” he said.
Establishing a connected value chain with discussions and partnerships spanning the larger ecosystem is also key and an ethos shared by Cognizant Ocean and Tidal. Indeed, Fiskå believes the Tidal-Cognizant collaboration could be the start of a more integrated way of thinking.
Another differentiator is the two have the muscle to come up with industrial-grade solutions, he said.
“There’s been lots of good start-ups and also spins-offs from existing industry giants, but having that software and hardware from a bigger background and having access to a very large pool of talents does make a difference. As does global reach. Transformation requires a more global way of thinking, and if we are going to be able to produce more fish, which we have to and in a sustainable way to maintain our growing global population, then these things matter a lot. I think we can definitely play a role as an integrator in the true sense (not just in a technical sense).”
Engagement growth
As well as having something that brings all value chain elements together to talk and inform one another, there’s a strong need from the industry to have a platform in place that has “longevity and muscle”, Fiskå said.
“There are some systems that’ve been around for a long time, and which might not be up to the task when it comes to the data that’s now flowing and the updates that are coming on a regular basis. We’re also seeing more requests along the lines of, ‘how do I go from smolt into saltwater and the production of that? How do I trace that? How do I better optimise my feed so I get my costs and my CO2 footprint down? And how do I integrate that with automation around fleet management – to clean, handle or process the fish? How do I do that with the right growth curve so I hit my market correctly etc?’”
He added that the demand side of the value chain is also becoming increasing interested in these same aspects.
“They’re also looking for a different future – a more measured and automated way and a more secure supply chain. If they want to sell to their end customers, they need to know when fish is coming and how much, its size and weight, and that it’s sustainably sourced.
“Today, all of us are using Teams, Google etc and I think we expect that’s possible in the aquaculture value chain. But in heavy asset industries, that’s not always the case; it hasn’t got here yet. And I think that’s what we are about to see – a small but significant revolution.”
Fiskå added that while there are a lot of positives for the industry, to a certain degree it’s still “finding its feet” when it comes to transitioning from a procurement mindset and buying things into an investment mindset where investments are made to change the operational model.
Changing mindsets
While there’s still some weighty resistance to sharing data, Fiskå maintains that mindsets are changing and there’s a growing appreciation that industrialising a suite through a platform that’s released to a bigger market can speed up its sustainability, efficiency and increase production. There are also heavy costs associated with maintaining custom products and software.
“There’s an appreciation that we’re coming with something that’s clear, which fosters partnerships specific to their industry,” Fiskå said. There are those that understand data is something that you have to utilise and share to be able to do something to get the gold out of it and that it doesn’t really create value by itself. It’s only when you connect it with other data, insights and automation that you see the gains. There are some CEOs and frontrunners that understand that.
“Of course, there’s some scepticism to big giants joining the party too. Typically, we’re asked, ‘will you be dominant? Are you looking to lock in contracts with industry? Who owns the data etc?’ But those are questions which we have clear, mature answers to; ones that the digital sector has faced from other industries for a long time.”
Salmon farming giant Mowi is among those already utilising the platform, specifically at around 700 installations around the Norwegian coast, with more set to come on stream in due course.
“Those have been operational for a while and they are producing very good results,” Fiskå said. “Then we have ongoing conversations and are running trials with other salmon producers, together with some very early conversations in other areas and for other species.”
Cognizant Ocean is also working with organisations like the NCE Seafood Innovation in Norway, and through such relationships it is pre-competitively sharing information and participating in open research.
“Perhaps it’s hard for the industry to accept that a change is coming, even though I’m pretty sure the technology they’ll be utilising is already here. I also feel that most players have been talking about a ‘golden vision of egg-to-consumer connectivity’ happening for the past five or 10 years. My feeling is that with the technology there, it’s now mindsets that need to change, where we have an industry that’s looking to partner up and one that also understands you’re not going to own the solution all by yourself,” Fiskå said.
Partnering up
Moving forward, Fiskå’s immediate hope within Cognizant Ocean’s blue food focus is there’ll be more people rolling out the platform and utilising its data, and then naturally moving into collaborations and partnerships that create a more holistic end-to-end value chain and ecosystem, and that more products reach the market as a result.
“That’s the immediate vision we have and a lot of it is already in place either conceptually or technically. It’s clear industry wants this and for it to be part of a full value chain, but perhaps it hasn’t yet seen a clear pathway to achieving it,” Fiskå said.
“But Cognizant has done this time and again in other industries. From a technology perspective, it’s not really new. Finance has done this for a long time – taking care of data quality, security etc, while manufacturing has also come quite far. With aquaculture, I think it’s more about filling the knowledge gap of what’s possible. Then it’s about having trust – to jump into partnerships with both feet. That’s when they will learn pretty quickly what’s possible,” he said.
As for Cognizant Ocean’s work outside aquaculture, within its blue food focus area, it’s seeing growing interest for platform solutions from both the wild-fishery and by-catch sectors. Additionally, and while it doesn’t yet have a commercialised product ready, there’s momentum building in the field of blue transportation, predominantly with ocean shipping. Similarly, early conceptual discussions are ongoing with regards to renewable blue energy, with Fiskå anticipating seeing some pick-ups in 2024.
He added that another emerging area – one with “a very natural overlap” – is concentrated on sustaining biodiversity in rivers, lakes and shores going into the ocean. Cognizant Ocean calls this “blue life”, and Fiskå explained that it’s something that is requested a lot because of the knowledge that the group has built up, together with its perception and measurement capabilities.
