Precision agriculture is giving way to what John Deere calls “decision agriculture,” as artificial intelligence allows farmers to turn vast amounts of operational data into real-time decisions, according to Rodrigo Bonato, the company’s vice president of sales and marketing for Latin America.
The shift builds on more than a decade of collecting georeferenced farm data and connecting machinery, Bonato said in an interview with The AgriBiz. AI can now analyze that information within seconds, potentially helping farmers make decisions ranging from planting density to field management.
“Throughout the precision-agriculture era, we collected georeferenced data and added connectivity so farmers could manage their operations,” Bonato said. “Now, with AI, you can analyze information in real time and make decisions in real time. We have reached the point where we can benefit from decision agriculture.”
The difference, he said, is the ability of AI agents to quickly answer specific questions using information not only from an individual farm but also from millions of hectares of connected farmland around the world.
John Deere has more than 1 million machines connected in real time globally, transmitting data to the cloud through satellite or cellular networks. The company has more than 200 million hectares (494 million acres) connected worldwide, including about 20 million hectares (49 million acres) in Brazil, Bonato said.
“With connectivity, farmers were receiving data, but they had to stop, analyze it and combine Excel spreadsheets to make sense of everything,” he said. “Now, with three or four questions to JD, they can decide within minutes what seed population to use in a particular field.”
JD, the company’s AI agent, is expected to launch in Latin America by the end of this year. The tool is designed to turn the vast database John Deere has built over the past decade into precise answers within seconds.
JD is already being rolled out gradually in the US, and Bonato sees significant potential for adoption in Latin America, particularly Brazil.
“Brazilian farmers tend to embrace technology more readily, so I believe they will also use JD more,” he said. “They will ask more questions because they are more curious and inquisitive, allowing them to cross-reference data more efficiently. We expect the adoption curve for JD to be steeper here.”
Brazil’s tropical agriculture also generates more data because farmers can often harvest two crops a year from the same land, Bonato said.
Data availability is also supported by Brazilian farmers’ willingness to share information through the cloud. Nearly 99% of John Deere’s customers in the country authorize data sharing with the company and its dealership network, he said.
“Look at the level of trust they have in our brand,” Bonato said, adding that John Deere complies with Brazil’s data-protection rules and does not access individual customer data.
The commercial strategy for JD has yet to be determined. Bonato indicated it could resemble the model used for John Deere’s Operations Center, its cloud-based farm-management platform that consolidates information from machines, displays and applications. The app itself is free, while some services require subscriptions.
Tech Holds Up as Machinery Sales Lag
Brazilian farmers’ appetite for technology has remained strong even as agricultural machinery sales declined in recent years amid low commodity prices, high interest rates and scarce credit, Bonato said.
“Machinery sales fell and have stabilized, but technology hasn’t,” he said. “Farmers are increasing investment in technology that can mitigate risk at every level, from machine maintenance and upgrades to digital tools.”
Bonato said sentiment among farmers has begun to improve following another record harvest and a recent increase in commodity prices, but that has yet to translate into new orders for tractors and other machinery.
A broader recovery will require lower interest rates, easier access to credit and fewer uncertainties surrounding agriculture, he said. Among the risks he cited were the potential effects of El Niño in several countries and the outcome of Brazil’s elections.
“Once crops stabilize, farmers may start investing, but that investment is much more likely to be aimed at the 2027/28 season than at 2026/27,” Bonato said.
“What we are hearing from farmers is that we have reached the bottom of the cycle, because agriculture is cyclical,” he added. “For all these reasons, we see the Brazilian and Latin American markets remaining at this bottom for now, but with an upward trend.”
This story was translated from the original Portuguese with the assistance of artificial intelligence and reviewed by The AgriBiz editorial staff.
