Thomas Hayes is the co-founder of Agilitas, a company building AI-powered tools to help food scientists formulate faster, smarter, and with more confidence. By transforming messy spreadsheets into an intelligent platform, Agilitas is tackling the “cold start” problem in food R&D and making it easier for teams to benchmark products, create base formulas, and retain critical institutional knowledge.

In this episode of That’s a Food Job!, Tommy shares his unconventional path from chemical engineering to food tech founder. He talks about building a customer-first platform, the power of feedback loops in product development, and how AI is being used to reduce trial-and-error in formulation—without replacing the scientist behind the bench. We also dive into his global experiences working in Singapore and Saudi Arabia, and what those perspectives taught him about innovation, communication, and risk-taking.

If you're curious about the future of food science, the role of AI in product development, or how to build something new in a traditional industry, this conversation is a must-listen.