What was our rainfall on block four this season? How much glyphosate went onto block six? How much nitrogen have we put out so far?
Every grower asks questions like these, and the answers are usually already sitting in their records. Getting to them is another matter. It often means waiting until you’re back at the computer, opening a report, choosing fields and dates and clicking through filters, at the end of a day that was already long enough.
That came up again and again in conversations with growers I visited throughout the US and Canada this year. They didn’t want another dashboard. They wanted to ask a question and get an answer. One grower described exactly what he was after: from the cab of his truck, ask for a report on a set of fields and parameters, and have it waiting in his inbox by the time he got back to the office.
That’s what AI agents promise. Not a chatbot explaining how farming works, but an assistant that works with your own records: answering a question, pulling a report, creating a work order or logging an activity from a few spoken sentences. For most growers the value is simple. An hour saved in the evening is an hour they can’t get back any other way.
Getting it right matters more than getting it first
The catch is that an agent that can read your records can also write to them, and farm records aren’t just notes. They are spray records, compliance reports and the history your agronomist, buyers and auditors rely on. Before handing any agent the keys, whether it’s built into your farm software or a third-party tool asking for access to your data, a few questions are worth asking:
- Does it only see what you’re allowed to see? Farm records are often shared between growers, agronomists, retailers and contractors. An agent has to respect exactly the same permissions as the person using it.
- Does it calculate or does it guess? A nitrogen total should be worked out from actual application records, the same way every time.
- Does it ask before it acts? Drafting a record is fine. Submitting a compliance report should wait for your approval.
- Where does your data go? Your records should stay yours, and you should decide who can access them.
Last year, Agworld introduced Bruce, an AI assistant that answers how-to questions but deliberately has no access to account data. Working with your own records is the next step, and it’s the step where those questions matter most. That’s why the groundwork has come first: new read and write APIs, structured data an agent can’t misinterpret, and permissions built in from the start.
The most useful farm assistant won’t be the one that talks the most. It will be the one you can trust with your records.
