ATW 2026: Beyond the Hype – Why Trusted Data Will Determine the Value of Agricultural AI

Trusted data emerged as the critical factor determining whether AI can deliver practical value for agriculture at YAGRO’s Agri-Tech Week 2026 event.

Hosted in Cambridge, “Beyond the Hype” explored AI’s shift from experimentation to commercial decision-making. Chaired by Richard Johnston, Head of Digital Strategy at Frontier Agriculture, the panel featured Rebecca Geraghty (MD) and Declan Kavanagh MBE (Head of Technology ) of YAGRO, Kate Connors (MD) of Bayer Crop Science UK, and Christine Watts (Vice President of Corporate Marketing and Market Expansion), Taylor & Francis.

Rebecca highlighted how AI reduces complex farm-data processing from weeks to hours, empowering faster decision-making. Kate explained how Bayer is using AI to help analyse data, evaluate potential product candidates and support decisions across breeding, crop protection and farming systems.

Christine underlined the evidence challenge: taking 200,000 agri-food and environmental articles published in recent years, reading each for just five minutes would take a single person eight working years. Making this vast knowledge accessible and traceable is central to new AI intelligence layer tools like Evidence IQ.

Declan explored the sharper edge of AI, noting that as systems progress from recommending actions to executing them, robust cybersecurity, data sovereignty, and clear accountability become paramount.

Kate offered a compelling vision for what success could look like: five years from now, AI is no longer something we talk about separately. It is simply part of how we work as an industry. Rather than counting pilots, platforms or tools, we should judge progress by the outcomes they enable: better decisions and a more resilient, productive and innovative farming industry.

Ultimately, moving beyond the hype requires understanding what sits beneath AI’s outputs – the trusted data and human governance that drive real-world outcomes.

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