‘Open Mic’ discusses the potential of AI and ML in agriculture

In May we held our second Farm491 ‘Open Mic’ lunchtime discussion – this is our new series designed to bring the business and academic community together around a topic of interest, to form a better understanding of both the business and research opportunities. 

This month the topic was Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) in agriculture.

Our subject-expert facilitators were colleagues from Ricardo, part of the Innovate UK BridgeAI programme, who brought their insight on how businesses of any size leverage AI/ML, and how it can be used in farming to improve profitability, efficiency and sustainability.

AI and ML in agriculture is a vast and rapidly evolving area of discussion, and while an hour barely scratched the surface, ‘Open Mic’ highlighted both the promise and the challenges. Attendees explored key barriers to adoption—such as mistrust, limited awareness, and data access—before diving into real-world applications. These included yield predictions, disease detection, precision weeding, food quality control, and animal health monitoring.

Our next ‘Open Mic’

We look forward to our next ‘Open Mic’ lunchtime discussion – details will be published shortly. Check back on our What’s On page soon to register.