Delaney Seiferling 2026.08.21
https://www.producer.com/farm-family/management/use-artificial-intelligence-to-predict-the-strength-of-your-farm-decisions/
When people think of artificial intelligence (AI) on the farm, they often picture robots, drones and other futuristic technology.
Indeed, AI is expected to become one of the most transformative technologies in Canadian agriculture over the next decade, particularly as it is integrated into autonomous machinery, robotics and precision farming systems.
But many experts believe that right now, farmers are using the technology for something more practical: better farm management.
And it’s having a huge impact.
Rob Saik, a professional agrologist, entrepreneur and one of Canada’s leading experts on agricultural innovation, believes that some of AI’s greatest value at the moment lies in helping producers make better decisions, challenge their own thinking and reclaim time from the growing administrative demands of running a modern farm business.
“There’s two parts to a decision,” he says.
“There is the gathering of information to make a prediction. The second part of a decision is judgment.”
He believes AI has the potential to strengthen both.
Taylor Phillips, technology officer with Maverick Ag, says he’s already seeing that shift firsthand.
Despite the fact that some believe AI is still uncommon on Canadian farms (an FCC/Deloitte report found that only about 1.8 per cent of Canadian agricultural businesses reported using AI in 2025), Phillips says many producers are already benefiting from the technology.
“At the end of the day, producers have actually been using AI whether they know it or not … for a long time,” he says.
From organizing information and challenging assumptions to reducing administrative workload, experts like Phillips and Saik believe that, with current technologies available to and being adopted by farmers, AI has the potential to improve one of agriculture’s most valuable resources: the farmer’s time and attention.
Strengthening decisions
Every day, producers make hundreds of decisions that influence everything from crop yields and livestock health to profitability and long-term sustainability. Research has consistently shown that the quality of those management decisions is closely linked to farm performance.
But making good decisions isn’t easy.
Every growing season, producers weigh weather forecasts against soil moisture, grain prices against storage capacity, fertilizer costs against yield potential and cash flow against long-term investment plans. Every decision carries uncertainty, requiring producers to balance competing risks while navigating the same mental shortcuts and cognitive biases that affect every human decision maker.
Saik says producers are using AI to improve this process by first gathering reliable information — weather forecasts, soil moisture data, market intelligence, research findings and farm records — then analyzing that information before making a final decision.
“The thinking about your thinking … that’s really where the needle will move,” Saik says.
Phillips, who says he currently spends roughly 35 to 40 per cent of his time helping clients adopt AI on the farm, also sees that process happening on today’s farms.
One of AI’s greatest strengths, he says, is its ability to act as a devil’s advocate.
“It has the ability to go: ‘I don’t think that’s the greatest idea you’ve ever had, and here’s some reasons why.’”
He says AI can also combine historical and real-time information from a farm, including yields, contracts, equipment performance and imagery, to evaluate different scenarios as conditions change. From there, it can present possible outcomes and the probabilities associated with them, allowing the producer to make more informed decisions.
And the potential value of better decision-making isn’t just theoretical.
Saik says he recently met with a producer who reduced chemical costs on his farm by nearly $1 million this year through better management decisions using AI.
Giving producers their time back
Both experts believe one of AI’s most immediate impacts on the farm is happening in an area producers famously dislike most: administration.
As farms grow larger, the paperwork, human resources, documentation and planning required to run them have grown just as quickly.
Phillips says AI can complete many of these routine tasks, drafting standard operating procedures, preparing presentations, organizing meeting notes and summarizing contracts in minutes rather than hours.
He says he’s also seeing clients use technology, such as Gemini and ChatGPT, to draft emails, troubleshoot equipment, summarize research and search trusted references, such as the Saskatchewan Crop Protection Guide, using conversational prompts instead of manually searching hundreds of pages.
Finally, he says the technology is also beginning to preserve organizational knowledge.
Because systems such as Gemini can learn from internal documents, previous decisions and existing communications, AI can increasingly help employees make decisions that reflect the farm owner’s philosophy.
“Your team has access to the CEO’s brain without the CEO being there,” he says.
Saik says many producers are also finding practical ways to weave AI into everyday management. Some use ChatGPT’s voice interface while driving trucks or tractors, turning windshield time into an opportunity to research ideas, draft documents or work through management questions.
Others are connecting grain contracts, inventory and cash-flow information so AI can reconcile positions and flag potential issues more easily, while some have customized ChatGPT prompts to summarize multiple grain market newsletters into a single daily market briefing.
Saik says these examples demonstrate AI’s most immediate value: reducing mental workload by organizing information and surfacing what matters most.
Human judgment will still matter
AI will most certainly continue to transform the work of the modern-day producer and the way farm businesses operate.
There remain endless opportunities for AI to automate repetitive tasks such as scouting, spraying and equipment operation, and help address labour shortages and rising input costs in the years ahead.
But despite all the excitement, experts warn against viewing AI as infallible or as a replacement for human judgment.
Saik says when he uses AI to explore agronomic questions, he still verifies important decisions with trusted advisors because he strongly believes that local knowledge matters.
“Alberta is different than Alabama is different than Arkansas. Agriculture is nuanced. You gotta be aware of the hallucinations, and it can make mistakes.”
Phillips agrees, saying that rather than accept AI recommendations at face value, producers need enough experience and context to recognize when something “doesn’t pass the sniff test.”
For him, AI should strengthen critical thinking, not replace it.
“That’s the one thing we can’t (do), believing everything it says.”
And while AI can gather and analyze information faster than any person, it still can’t replace the judgment, experience and intuition that have always been at the heart of successful farm management, Saik says.
“AI won’t replace farmers; it will augment them,” says Saik.
Phillips agrees.
“I am a huge, huge believer that AI is not here to replace anyone,” he says. “It will accelerate those who adopt it.”