From left to right: Bruce Miller, BSA Senior Director, Legislative Strategy moderated a panel discussion that featured Nik Green, CNH Industrial Vice President of Data & Analytics; Mike Jacobs, IBM Sustainability & Social Innovation Leader; and Meredith Williams, AT&T Assistant Vice President, Executive Branch.
More than 100 Capitol Hill staff joined artificial intelligence (AI) experts from BSA | The Software Alliance and its signature initiative, the Digital Transformation Network (DTN), for a briefing focused on the impact of AI on agriculture.
Bruce Miller, BSA Senior Director, Legislative Strategy moderated a panel discussion that featured Nik Green, CNH Industrial Vice President of Data & Analytics; Mike Jacobs, IBM Sustainability & Social Innovation Leader; and Meredith Williams, AT&T Assistant Vice President, Executive Branch.
The discussion focused on how developments in AI are helping to transform agriculture, including the safety, efficiency, and sustainability of modern farming. The speakers shared insights into how AI can help achieve those goals, like using it to monitor the moisture in soil, the amount of sunlight, and more.
“Our employees serve our customers — like our farmers, who are able to set up shops online and manage things versus doing it manually,” Williams said. “Being able to do that with AI allows us all to be more efficient with our time.”
Farmers are using AI tools to inform their recommendations and decision-making, especially amid potentially unpredictable environments. Jacobs provided the example of a farmer balancing considerations between nutrient applications and weather conditions.
“One significant issue can involve more complex decisions around, ‘I know that my crops need more of that nutrient application and fertilizer, but I also know that we’re caught in this weather pattern,'” he said.
Managing future needs in the evolving landscape of AI and agriculture is a necessity, especially for B2B companies trying to navigate driving innovation through increased digital skills in the workforce.
“I think what we’re trying to balance is: How do you continue to drive innovation while also ensuring machinery is operating as efficiently and as correctly as possible, with a workforce that isn’t necessarily evolving as quickly as technology is,” Green explained. “AI helps us bridge that gap to where we can start to simplify the level of sophistication that is in the machine.”
The briefing was hosted in conjunction with the release of the DTN report, “From Farm to Fork: Agriculture’s AI Transformation.”
The report points to research showing that 87 percent of businesses in the United States agricultural industry were using AI in some shape or form as of late 2021. It also highlights how AI is enhancing sustainability, improving systems, and managing future needs through examples from BSA member companies. Finally, it encourages farmers worldwide to embrace the new wave of AI tools available to them.
Learn more about artificial intelligence in agriculture in the most recent DTN report here.
