Artificial intelligence is changing how people gather, organize and share agricultural information, but Casey Bradley says the industry must remember that technology cannot replace real expertise.
Bradley, an animal nutrition expert based in Springdale, Arkansas, works in product and market development in agribusiness, pet nutrition and health. She says tools such as ChatGPT and other large language models can help people summarize information, organize ideas and explore technical topics more quickly. Platforms such as SciSpace can also help with literature reviews by identifying and ranking research papers related to a specific question.
But Bradley says AI also creates a serious risk.
“It can make people feel like they no longer need to seek out true expertise,” she said. “That is dangerous, especially in agriculture, where decisions often affect animal health, food safety, profitability and long-term sustainability.”
She says AI output depends on the quality of the prompt, the user’s ability to judge the response and the context provided. If people ask poor questions or lack the background to evaluate the answer, AI can overstate conclusions or oversimplify research. In technical fields such as animal nutrition, production and food systems, that can mislead producers.
Bradley grew up in agriculture and has spent her career in research and technical service. She sees AI as a strong support tool, not a replacement for applied knowledge. AI can gather and organize information faster, but it cannot fully understand field conditions, animal behaviour, production limits, customer needs or the judgment that comes from experience.
“Real expertise is not just knowing what the literature says,” she said.
“It is knowing how, when and whether to apply that knowledge in a real-world agricultural system.”
Bradley also worries about “acting experts” who influence producer decisions without enough field experience. She says these voices are not new, but social media and AI give them more reach. At the same time, she says agriculture should not define expertise too narrowly.

People who did not grow up on farms can still bring valuable training, questions and perspective.
The real issue, she says, is whether the person understands the complexity of applying information in real-world systems. Acting experts often offer one-size-fits-all answers. Real experts adjust recommendations based on the farm, species, facilities, economics, labour, management style and people involved.
Bradley sees AI adding value in decision support and operational efficiency. It can help build standard operating procedures, create training materials, summarize data, translate information and identify patterns. On farms, cameras, microphones and sensors can help monitor animal behaviour, estimate body weight, count animals and flag changes in activity.
But she cautions that many technologies work better in pilot projects than in barns. Dust, humidity, temperature swings, animal behaviour, facility design and labour limits all affect whether a system works. Producers also need to know whether the investment saves labour, improves performance, reduces mortality or prevents losses.
“It is great if a computer can tell you a pig or cow may be sick,” she said, “but a person still has to find that animal in a timely manner and intervene.”
Bradley says technology should not replace good husbandry, stockmanship or management. In some cases, a trained stockperson can identify trouble before a system sends an alert.
She also believes AI can help preserve the knowledge of experienced producers. Podcasts, interviews, farm walks and recorded conversations can capture judgment, stories, problem-solving and lived experience. AI could help organize that material and make it easier to teach.
But agriculture still needs hands-on mentoring. Bradley says her father taught her animal husbandry and people husbandry by example. She learned by watching him solve problems, read animals and work with people.
No app or dashboard can fully replace walking barns, observing animals, fixing problems and learning beside someone with experience.
Bradley says agriculture needs to balance innovation with lived experience by breaking down silos. Inventors and creative thinkers need room to explore new ideas, but they should connect with producers and technical experts early. That prevents them from building ideas that fail in real barns, mills or production systems.
“The goal should not be innovation without experience, or experience without innovation,” Bradley said. “We need both.”
She says real progress happens when science, creativity, business reality and lived experience come together early. AI can help agriculture move faster, but people must keep it grounded. •
— By Harry Siemens