What do terms like IoT and A.I. mean to dealers? For many, these may still be ambiguous references to abstract technologies. But the reality is, innovations like machine learning and equipment automation have already arrived, and are poised to alter the way precision farming dealers do business in the future.

The rapidly evolving field of ag tech is being driven by a confluence of factors including automation and sensor densification of agricultural field machinery, connection of this equipment to the internet, remote sensing via unmanned aerial systems and cloud computing. So will A.I. replace precision specialists, crop advisors or other agriculture professionals? Not likely, says Scott Shearer, Ohio State University ag engineering professor.

“However, A.I. and other disruptive technologies will assist specialists, dealers and farmers to extract actionable information from volumes of data collected from soil and tissue samples, on-board machinery sensors, weather stations and remote sensing platforms,” he says.

Shearer draws on recent research and academic forecasts to share why dealers need to stay on the forefront of emerging technologies including autonomy and machine learning that could dramatically alter their business models of the future.

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