Should You Buy That Agricultural AI? Eight Questions Before You Sign

Abstract

Artificial intelligence is marketed to farms as broadly transformative; however, adoption rates are uneven, and many promising pilot projects fail to become profitable. We argue that the deciding factor is rarely the algorithm but the fit between the tool and the conditions of its use. Four conditions predict that fit, and all four can be checked before money is committed. We turn them into an eight-question test, state its scoring rule, probe its sensitivity, apply it to four common vendor propositions, and release it as a free, offline instrument for farm and agribusiness managers.