We previously explored how ChatGPT will drive innovation, now we’re taking a closer look at the agricultural industry to see how this platform will impact agriculture in the years to come. This article explores the six methods that will increase yields and decrease cost and time for the growing industry, in conjunction with ChatGPT’s agriculture-related shortcomings. 

How is ChatGPT going to impact Agriculture?

We always find it interesting to see how AI predicts its own utilization for a given use case so we asked ChatGPT “How will ChatGPT affect the agriculture industry?” ChatGPT responded with the following:   

1. Predictive Analytics: Farmers, researchers, and agricultural professionals will be able to readily access information, ask questions and gain insights into various agricultural topics from crop cultivation to pest management to soil health and more. With this information, these professionals will be able to make informed decisions with provided guidance on crop selection, planting schedules, fertilization practice, and overall farm management.  
2. Market and Trade Information: Utilizing a new understanding of market trends, commodity prices, trade regulations, and supply chain dynamics, ChatGPT will help agriculture professionals gain global insights into the agricultural markets and make informed decisions regarding prices, market access, and export opportunities. 
3. Pest and Disease Monitoring: Agriculture professionals will be able to identify and manage pests, diseases, and invasive species by describing symptoms. ChatGPT will suggest integrated pest management strategies and recommend appropriate treatments, and pest and disease mitigation techniques for specific crops. 
4. Farm Automation: In order to increase efficiency and productivity farms can utilize ChatGPT to understand autonomous vehicles, robotic systems for planting and harvest, and AI-based decision-making algorithms.
5. Sustainability and Environmental Impact: Through easily accessible information on sustainable farming practices – like organic and regenerative agriculture, and agroforestry – ChatGPT can hello reduce the harmful environmental impact of agricultural activities. 
6. Precision Agriculture: ChatGPT can provide insights into data analysis, remote sensing, and machine learning techniques. These technologies – including GPS guidance, drones, and sensors – will be used to optimize inputs, reduce waste, and improve yields. 

The majority of the answers lead to two important results: an increase in yield and therefore revenue, as well as decreasing cost and time investments. Perhaps ChatGPT will be the autonomous revolution of the 2020s, similar to the textile industry’s industrial revolution in the 18th and 19th centuries. 

ChatGPT’s Influence on Agriculture

ChatGPT’s ability to quickly, effectively, and efficiently create insights from data analysis ranging from all types of agricultural activities will make informed decision-making much easier for farmers and other agricultural professionals. This technology will expand beyond the ability to quickly find information, and efficiently reduce manual tasks which inherently will reduce the time and cost of human labor-heavy activities and in turn increase yield productivity. The benefits do not end here, as informed decision-making includes determining the best prices and collaborations for farmers and corporations alike. 

Moving beyond the possibility of automating tasks and creating large databases with relevant crop and soil-heavy information, will ChatGPT be beneficial for the cutting edge of agriculture? There’s no denying the benefit of predictive analytics and precision farming, but when it comes to tech scouting and venture capital teams, what role will ChatGPT play? 

Transitioning from a call-and-response type of question, I asked “What recently published patents will benefit the agriculture industry?” 

I was given a similar response to that of the initial question regarding ChatGPT’s role in the agricultural industry. The overall summary is a good starting place, but the lack of indexed patent data doesn’t get us any closer to a new emerging or licensable technology; nor does it automatically provide supplemental information for relevant start-ups or competitive intel. 

ChatGPT and Competitive Intelligence

Granted, this question was rather broad, so I dove deeper into ChatGPT’s depth of knowledge on current competitors' activities it populated these results when asked: “Who are the leaders in precision agriculture?” 

Google cited NASDAQ with this response; 

Despite the 2021 data limitations, the top competitors and their current activities are more informative when compared to Google’s quick summary. While ChatGPT may have an abundance of knowledge and easily explains complex topics or provides informed answers to quick one-off questions, when digging deeper the need to draft the most appropriate question becomes painstakingly time-consuming. When using a tool like Scout, all of the recent up-to-date data spread across numerous IP categories are at your disposal. 

Taking ChatGPT’s competitor analysis a step further: 

Not only does ChatGPT’s knowledge base prevent the AI tool from providing an answer, but it also cites patent offices that are already embedded with Scout, in addition to about 100 others. 

ChatGPT’s ability to ask for information in the form of a question is a double-edged sword: while convenient, asking the wrong question may lead to dead ends. Scout’s search keyword technique and machine learning analytics provide a great deal of information with the ability to quickly and easily filter based on year, IP category, geographic region, and much more. When faced with a similar search topic regarding Trimble’s recent patents on precision farming, Scout reported their patents and more. 

Scout not only has a profile for Trimble but contains the ability to search within the company’s profile specifically for “precision farming.” This result generated almost 60 records, including press releases and patent data within the past year, as up-to-date as this month.

Looking at the industry networks, the collaboration between Trimble and John Greene on items solely related to “precision farming” is about 9 records – including everything from patent records to press releases to SEC filings to university partnership and technology licensing opportunities. 


Outside of Trimble’s profile, Scout has thousands of results for “precision farming” – from the newest emerging technologies, startups, and company collaborations to SEC filings to publications and access to global patent databases.

Summary

The agriculture industry stands to benefit greatly from ChatGPT’s introduction. Namely, in automation and informed decision making as it seems one of the strong themes. ChatGPT's contributions will be increased crop yields and decreased financial and time investments through analyzed data. That being said, the current lack of real-time data will present challenges for those on the outskirts of agriculture who are looking for competitive intelligence, emerging technologies, and new collaboration or partnerships with startups and universities. 

If you are interested to see how searching in Scout for new technologies using your keywords or research topics compares, schedule a short demo here.