🧞 ‍ What does it take to transform an industry?

(Text by Paulo Gaspar, CEO of BRAINR, July 2025, iAlimentar Magazine)

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For half a century, the Portuguese food industry evolved based on effort, discipline and dedication. It was this work, done every day by thousands of professionals, that made the sector more robust, secure and competitive. However, times have changed. And with them came new requirements: more frequent audits, ever narrower margins, difficulties maintaining teams, and regulations that change constantly.

In this context, “digital transformation” came to occupy the center of the conversation. We talk about data, about efficiency, about artificial intelligence. But transforming an industry isn't simply about implementing beautiful dashboards or buying off-the-shelf technology. It's about changing the way people work. Every day. In every production line. In every office. With every single person.

And that's difficult. Because it requires dealing with reality as it is: imperfect, urgent, full of exceptions and last-minute decisions. That's why BRAINR didn't start with a product. It began with a question: “What is still difficult to do in a food factory?” We went to listen. We went to see. And only then did we start building.

From theory to factory: where transformation actually takes place

Today, more than 25% of domestic meat production is already processed by software from BRAINR. And we're just getting started.

In Viseu, for example, Campoaves packs 60,000 chicken cuvettes a day. To maintain IFS certification, strict traceability is mandatory. But that rigor was underpinned by paper, human effort, and the risk of error. The introduction of BRAINR made traceability an integrated part of production, with all data in real time and direct connection to the lines. The impact was immediate: fewer errors, more control, and audits passed on the first attempt. As Diogo Martins, quality manager, told us: “BRAINR directly helped to achieve and now maintain the IFS certification.” For Cátia Marques, from the master data team, the difference is clear: “We stopped depending on memory and paper. The system now talks to the production lines.”

Further south, AviSabor underwent a radical transformation: from 40,000 to 190,000 chickens a day, and from 80 to 700 employees. The biggest challenge? It wasn't growing up. It was to maintain control. For years, finding a system that matched the complexity of the operation was a constant problem. With BRAINR, this problem gave way to full visibility. Today, they know exactly what goes in, what goes out, and what each line is producing, minute by minute. Certainty became part of the routine. As Renato Prata, administrator, affirms: “We have a very high degree of certainty in what we do.” And Juan Oliveira, from the management team, confirms: “The bill is right, the weight is right, the customer gets exactly what he ordered.”

Transforming isn't about creating beautiful apps. It's sitting next to someone who operates a line, unloads a pallet, or responds to an audit. It's understanding where processes fail and building simple, practical, and robust solutions. That's why managers started to see income, losses, and deviations in real time, without parallel sheets, without noise. Soon, they will have intelligent assistants that generate reports automatically. In the warehouse, stock is counted by cell phone and traceability by lot, validity and location is integrated. On the factory floor, manual notes disappeared and mobile apps became more agile. A new supervision application is coming, designed for those who lead shifts. In planning, the rigidity of the old systems has been left behind and a new intelligent module, with reverse logic and performance optimization, is already under development. In terms of quality, comprehensive traceability now includes an incident and recall management module, with automatic protocols and quick response for the most demanding scenarios.

3 Portuguese SMEs Will Be Able to Try BRAINR for Free

And because we know that experimenting is better than promising, three SMEs will be able to test BRAINR solutions for free through the Test4Food program, funded by the PRR. No initial investment! It's a concrete way of understanding the impact of digitalization on a real factory, with real teams.

Even in artificial intelligence, we prefer our feet on the ground to blind enthusiasm. We asked the right question again: “What is still difficult to do on a daily basis?” The answers are guiding the development of AI solutions - automatic analysis of deviations, explanations in natural language, practical recommendations. No magic, no empty promises. Just applied intelligence where it really makes a difference.

International Recognitions Appear

This effort is already beginning to be recognized. We were distinguished by StartUS Insights as one of the world's best demand planning and forecasting solutions. We received the award for the most innovative product of the year at Lisbon Food Affair. And we were highlighted by Manufacturing Tech Insights as the leading solution in Cloud-Based Manufacturing Execution Systems. But true recognition comes from elsewhere: from those who, at the end of the day, close the factory with fewer errors, more control and more pride in what they do.

So what does it take to change an industry?

Maybe it's this: having the courage to start at the bottom, not the top. Listen before you promise. Deliver value before asking for attention. And to believe that, if we do it well, the sector comes with us.

Because the Portuguese food industry deserves the effort.