Artificial Intelligence at John Deere 

John Deere is a number one agricultural equipment and precision expertise firm devoted to advancing productiveness and sustainability in farming industries worldwide. The firm manufactures a complete vary of apparatus—spanning tractors, combines, and clever spraying options—serving producers of meals, gas, and infrastructure throughout the globe.

In 2024, John Deere reported annual income of $51.7 billion in accordance with inner reports. At the tip of 2024, Deere & Company employed roughly 75,800 individuals, with a presence on six continents and a dominant footprint throughout North America, Europe, and Asia.

Although John Deere doesn’t publicly disclose exact funding quantities in AI, its dedication is evidenced by strategic acquisitions (such because the $305 million purchase of Blue River Technology) and public demonstrations of breakthrough AI-powered programs.

This evaluation focuses on two AI use instances that instantly assist John Deere’s enterprise targets:

• Optimizing herbicide software: Utilizing machine imaginative and prescient to detect and selectively spray weeds, considerably decreasing chemical utilization and reducing operational prices for farmers.
• Enabling autonomous discipline operations: Applying laptop imaginative and prescient and AI to energy driverless tractors and tools, growing effectivity and addressing labor shortages by means of totally automated farm duties.

Optimizing Herbicide Application

The firm’s conventional spraying tools operated on a “broadcast software” mannequin, the place herbicides have been utilized uniformly throughout total fields no matter weed density or location, per an organization information release in 2024. 

John Deere claims this strategy created important enterprise challenges for the corporate and its farming clients, in accordance with the John Deere 2022 Sustainability report. 

For John Deere, the inefficient software technique:

• Limited the worth proposition of their spraying tools
• Led farmers to hunt cheaper options to handle rising enter prices
• Created buyer dissatisfaction 

For clients, the published software technique: 

• Induced inconsistent software protection
• Generated chemical waste and environmental waste
• Necessitated unsustainable prices

The broader agricultural trade additionally faces extreme herbicide-related challenges that reach far past tools producers. Herbicide prices for farmers have escalated dramatically, per a information report from AgWeb, with typical functions now costing $50-$100 per acre. 

Traditional broadcast spraying programs waste huge portions of herbicides, with farmers spending $25 billion yearly on 3 billion kilos of herbicides. Research by BloombergNEF signifies that as little as 1% of pesticides utilized by way of broadcast really attain the goal pest. Instead, herbicides land on naked soil, wholesome vegetation, or are carried away with rainwater. 

John Deere wanted a differentiated expertise that would justify premium pricing whereas resolving buyer ache factors round chemical utilization and operational effectivity.

John Deere’s See & Spray expertise, developed by means of its $305 million acquisition of Blue River Technology in 2017, represents this subtle resolution. The system employs a number of AI capabilities working in live performance:

• Computer Vision and Image Processing: The system makes use of boom-mounted cameras to scan over 2,100 sq. toes of crop space per second, in accordance with John Deere’s 2024 news release, producing a steady stream of visible knowledge for evaluation.
• Deep Neural Networks: Each picture is processed by means of a deep neural community educated on a database of weed and crop photos to attain pixel-level classification, figuring out whether or not every plant is a crop or weed.
• Machine Learning Algorithms: The system employs convolutional neural networks powered by NVIDIA Jetson Xavier processors able to performing “tens of trillions of operations per second,” in accordance with the corporate’s use case documentation, to establish plant traits and make real-time spraying choices.

Screenshot from Nature of a Workflow Diagram for Implementing a Site-specific Weed Control Approach in a Corn Field. (Source: Nature)  

In an interview with OpenAI, John Deere’s President of Lifecycle Solutions Justin Rose mentioned that the AI resolution additionally pioneered a shift in John Deere’s pricing mannequin. The firm shifted to subscription-based, renewable licenses, invoicing clients solely primarily based on the acres the place the expertise is actively used. Farmers are solely billed after spraying operations, aligning prices instantly with the tangible worth acquired. 

For farmers, the mannequin lowers the upfront danger of investing on this new expertise and ensures cost displays the precise enter value financial savings and effectivity features. For John Deere, it created a recurring income stream that’s instantly tied to buyer success.

The system’s steady studying functionality additionally acted as a major development over static spraying, per Rose within the OpenAI interview. As new machines function throughout completely different fields, they gather new imagery and efficiency knowledge that feeds again into the machine studying platform, constantly enhancing effectiveness. 

In 2024, See & Spray expertise saved farmers an estimated 8 million gallons of herbicide and delivered a median herbicide financial savings of 59%, per the corporate’s 2024 news release. 

Independent studies by Iowa State University confirmed even greater financial savings charges, with particular person fields attaining herbicide reductions starting from 43.9% to 90.6%, averaging 76% throughout 415 acres examined. For farmers working at scale, these financial savings can offset tools prices quickly.

The Iowa State research documented financial financial savings of $6,500 value of herbicide merchandise, translating to $15.7 per acre in direct chemical value financial savings. 

Enabling Autonomous Field Operations

John Deere’s conventional tractor enterprise confronted mounting strain from labor shortages and altering buyer calls for. In an government conversation with RCR Wireless News, the corporate’s Chief Technology Officer, Jahmy Hindman revealed that farmers more and more wanted to “do extra work with fewer individuals,” with the common farmer being over 58 years previous and dealing 12-18 hour days. 

At massive, the American Farm Bureau Federation estimates roughly 2.4 million farm jobs have to be crammed yearly. The USDA reports that the state of affairs has worsened for the reason that variety of farms continues declining—dropping 7% from 2017 to 2023. 

The labor disaster threatened John Deere’s core enterprise mannequin, as tools gross sales rely on farmers’ skill to function equipment successfully. The firm wanted to evolve from promoting particular person machines to offering complete automation options that would deal with systemic labor challenges.

John Deere’s autonomous tractor expertise, enhanced by means of its $250 million acquisition of Bear Flag Robotics in 2021, integrates a number of AI programs to allow full autonomy. 

In a 2025 information release, the corporate claims the expertise options 16 particular person cameras organized in pods offering 360-degree visibility across the tractor and implements. The tractors make the most of high-precision GPS programs correct to inside lower than an inch, making certain exact discipline operations and sustaining place relative to programmed geofences.

Screenshot from Machine Journal Study on Applications and Systems in John Deere’s Autonomous Tractor Technology. (Source: Current and Future Applications of Agricultural Machines Based on Intelligent Methods)  

The autonomous tractors preserve constant velocity, depth, and sample accuracy that human operators can’t match over prolonged intervals. Meanwhile, farmers can monitor and management machines concurrently by means of cell functions, enabling strategic useful resource allocation and multi-site administration.

Autonomous tractors can function constantly day and evening, solely stopping for refueling or upkeep. This allows farmers to fill important labor gaps and full time-sensitive operations like tillage throughout optimum home windows. 

So far, John Deere’s autonomous tractor expertise has already produced measurable enterprise impacts: 

• According to the GriNext Conference, discipline proof demonstrates that farms had a 15-20% surge in productiveness after expertise adoption. 
• The expertise has successfully addressed important labor shortages, with autonomous tractors dealing with time-intensive operations like tillage that beforehand required expert operators for 12+ hour shifts.
• GPS steerage and accuracy resulted in a median of 6% gas and labor discount, per John Deere’s 2024 Impact report.