John Deere adds AI assistant JD to its Operations Center

John Deere's move comes after farmers have spent decades collecting field and machine data, and modern equipment now adds sensors that generate even larger volumes. Melissa Neuendorf, John Deere's principal product manager for customer AI solutions, said farmers consistently reported struggling to find insights manually, and that analysis can sometimes take weeks. Before JD, John Deere launched an AI tool last August that let farmers ask questions about help documentation and operator manuals, replacing the manual task of flipping through pages. That tool received positive feedback, prompting the company to broaden its application with JD.

Deere is among the first major agricultural-equipment makers to put a large language model AI assistant directly inside a platform that combines field, machine and operational data, while smaller agtech companies such as OneSoil, VisorPro, Arable and AgZen are developing generative AI tools for specific equipment or crop metrics. Matt Darr, a professor at Iowa State University who was in the room when Deere announced JD, said this didn't exist in the industry before the announcement.

Adoption remains early: a McKinsey global survey of 5,500 farmers published in September found that 72% expect generative AI to impact operations within five years, but only 17% use the tech right now. Darr said one reason is concern about data privacy and how information could affect commodity prices, and John Deere said in its release that it doesn't sell farm data or use it for agriculture commodity trading or speculation. Darr added that farmers have "one chance a year to grow a crop," so trust in the tool's accuracy is central, and Neuendorf said JD notifies farmers when data is missing rather than making assumptions.