AgTech and AI

Duff Bryant
Partner, Corporate

Transcript

I think AI in all other industries, and although I am sure agribusiness people think that it is just dirt and soil and plants; that is not going to change, it will unequivocally change how crops are managed and how logistics are integrated into every aspect of the business. It will streamline, I think, all sorts of things that go into producing agribusiness products. I think technology has always been a little bit late when it comes to the true ag business. AgTech has had its ups and downs through the years, but AI should help with the sort of business case for that in terms of making life easier for those in the production side of it. I think that it will be a longer adoption period; that has just been the trend with AgTech.

On the timber side, and then more importantly, probably the lumber side, I am sure AI is going to revolutionize certain aspects of how lumber mills operate. It probably has a threat to how many employees they need depending on how AI steps in and helps automate certain processes. But at the end of the day, these are giant manufacturing facilities that already have very sophisticated technology, so that part I am not quite sure where the AI will really kick in.