Farmers Are Embracing AI More Than Any Other Tech, McKinsey Says

Artificial intelligence use is surging on farms as growers look for some high-tech help in planning and managing operations after years of scaling back on spending, according to McKinsey & Co.

Some 17% of the world’s farmers now use generative AI in farm-related tasks, making it one of the fastest-growing technologies in agriculture, McKinsey said in its Global Farmer Insights 2026 report, published Tuesday.

The AI adoption follows a multiyear farm slump that crimped spending amid rising costs for agricultural inputs. Costs for labor, land, equipment, financing and fertilizer have remained elevated and volatile since farmer profitability last peaked in 2021-22, according to David Fiocco, senior partner at McKinsey.

“These forces — combined with local policy uncertainty, increasingly unpredictable weather and labor shortages — are making farm-level decisions harder and riskier,” Fiocco said in the report.

Farmers, especially in the Americas, are quickly adopting AI to assist in day-to-day decisions, the report said. The AI uptick comes as other technologies lag, with robotics, electric-powered machines and sustainability software each having minimal penetration on the farm, McKinsey said.

McKinsey’s findings come amid growing hopes of an industry turnaround. After years of squeezed margins, global farming is showing its strongest recovery signals in years. A recent rise in commodity prices, shifting trade flows and a pickup in equipment orders are fueling cautious but growing optimism that the industry’s prolonged downturn may finally be turning a corner.

The report is based on results of McKinsey’s Global Farmer Insights survey, which gathered responses from 5,500 farmers across 10 countries between April and June.

The biennial survey also showed that relatively higher costs contributed to a 24-percentage-point decline in spending intent for this year, with more than a third of growers identifying fertilizer as the first area to cut back in times of poor profits.

Biological crop inputs are a bright spot. “More than half of specialty crop farmers now use at least one biological,” McKinsey said of chemical alternatives used to protect or boost growth in crops.

Top photo: A computer displays incoming data from seven autonomous milking robots at a farm in Point Reyes Station, California that uses an AI system to evaluate and milk cows. Bloomberg.