Love it or hate it, AI is here. Like many businesses, we’re trying to understand where it can create genuine value, and where it risks becoming a distraction.
In recent conversations with seed companies, I’ve heard a range of views. Some businesses are already using AI in practical ways, while others remain cautious about privacy, accuracy and the synthetic feel of it. They may be in different places, but they have a surprisingly common bottom line: maintain the personal connection and relationships that require a human touch, while using AI to free them from the monotonous tasks that don’t.
For those already using AI, dashboards and generic insights are not enough. The real value is practical. If AI can help a team process a sales order by pulling together availability, lot status, customer commitments and delivery requirements, then queue up the next step for approval, that’s a win.
For those approaching AI more cautiously, the concern is not that AI has no value, but that their business runs on relationships with growers and customers. Phone calls are meaningful, and judgment comes from experience. They want to protect that. When they think about where AI belongs, they draw the same line: let it do the repetitive work and leave the relationships to humans. That line is worth paying attention to. The seed industry runs on trust, and the companies I speak with are not willing to hand that over. Repetitive admin? Workflows that eat up precious time? Routine data handling? Those are exactly the areas where AI can be useful.
Across the seed industry, experienced staff are harder to replace, and customer expectations are higher. Companies are being asked to process more orders, manage more complexity and deliver better service, often without significantly increasing headcount. If AI can expedite returns, digitize handwritten paperwork coming in from drivers and growers, and reduce friction in workflows, that time goes somewhere better. It goes back to the grower on the other end of the phone. Back to the customer conversation. Back to the relationship that drives the business forward.
Many of the companies most interested in AI are also the ones most committed to personal relationships. They don’t want technology to replace conversations with growers. They want it to remove the administration that gets in the way of those conversations.
The seed industry has always been a people business. Companies finding their footing with AI are protecting that.
