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Recently published Commission report explores the ways the artificial intelligence (AI) can support more sustainable and resilient agricultural practices in the EU member states. The report assesses the potential of AI-enabled decision-making support tools in helping farms increase efficiency, reduce inputs, as well as better manage risks, while identifying the barriers that currently hinder wider adoption of digital means in agriculture.
Conducted by Fraunhofer IESE, the report assesses the potential of AI-enabled decision-making support tools (so-called AI DMST) in helping farers increase efficiency, increase profits and better manage risks while identifying existing and future barriers to agricultural production.
Report’s findings
The report finds that although the AI-type digital technologies for agriculture are advancing rapidly, their adoption remains uneven: hence, structural and technical obstacles persist, particularly for smaller actors. The latter issues include limited access to high-quality data, high development costs, lack of interoperability and uncertainty around regulatory compliance. Farmers and advisors often encounter digital tools that are not only difficult to integrate into existing workflows but they lack transparency in the ways the recommendations are done.
To address these challenges, the report proposes a comprehensive set of political-economic actions:
First, in the short term, the actions include recommendations towards promoting “interoperability through common standards”, funding public repositories of agricultural data, and supporting tools and services for data annotation, such as “labeling imagery or sensor data to train AI models”.
Source and citation from: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/unlocking-potential-artificial-intelligence-sustainable-agriculture
Second, the report calls for the launch of regulatory sandboxes to enable real-world testing of AI solutions under safe conditions, coped with the co-funding of demonstration projects that would reveal some certified, explainable tools with clear benefits for farmers as the end-users.
Third, the report also emphasizes the role of “shared infrastructure in lowering entry barriers for smaller providers”; thus, a dedicated agri-food AI Factory, launched under the Digital Europe Program*), is described as a key initiative offering access to computing resources, domain-specific datasets, and regulatory support. According to the report, such infrastructure can help reduce development costs and support the deployment of trustworthy AI tools tailored to agricultural needs.
*) Note. The Digital Europe Program (so-called DIGITAL) is an EU funding program focusing on bringing digital technology to businesses, citizens and public administrations. In also provides strategic funding to answer existing global and EU challenges, supporting projects in key capacity areas such as: supercomputing, artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, advanced digital skills, and ensuring a wide use of digital technologies across the economy and society. It supports industry, SMEs and public administration in their digital transformation with a reinforced network of European Digital Innovation Hubs, the EDIHs. A new capacity area on semiconductors was added in September 2023; thus, under the EU Chips Act, the DIGITAL funding was mobilized to address a semiconductor shortage by promoting capacity building through the Chips for Europe Initiative.
Source and citation from the Commission press release (July 2025) in: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/activities/digital-programme
Besides, while the report focuses on the EU-wide digital and AI context, it also compares international approaches and stresses the importance of building a coherent, inclusive innovation digital system. Thus, the report also stresses “continued coordination between policymakers, research institutions and industry stakeholders” which will be essential to ensure that AI tools are developed and adopted world-wide in ways that are transparent, effective and aligned with European broader digital and sustainability objectives.
Finally, the future farmers’ picture looks quite fantastic: a person standing in the middle of fields, holding a tablet, with several agricultural icons hovering over, suggesting the digitalisation of the agricultural sector.
Conclusion
The latest Commission report (July 2025) finds that although AI technologies for agriculture are advancing rapidly, adoption remains uneven: thus, structural and technical obstacles persist, particularly for smaller farmers. The obstacles include, e.g. limited access to high-quality data, high development costs, lack of interoperability and uncertainty around regulatory compliance. Farmers and advisors often encounter tools that are difficult to integrate into existing workflows or lack transparency in how recommendations are generated.
To address these challenges, the report proposes a sequenced set of policy actions: e.g. promoting operability through common standards, funding public repositories of agricultural data, supporting tools and services for data annotation (such as assessment of agro-labelling and -sensor data to train AI models.
The report also calls for the launch of regulatory sandboxes to enable real-world testing of AI solutions under safe conditions, as well establishing co-funding of demonstration projects that could demonstrate certified and comprehensive tools with clear benefits for farmers and other end users.
Source: https://digital-strategy.ec.europa.eu/en/library/unlocking-potential-artificial-intelligence-sustainable-agriculture