The Impact of AI: Unpacking MYM Takeaways

From the President

The Impact of AI: Unpacking MYM Takeaways

By Brent Kemp, President and CEO

Long-time agriculture CEO and current industry consultant Matt Waits delivered quite a keynote at the 2025 North America Mid-Year Meeting. He challenged attendees to think about how AI will impact agriculture and interoperability in the years to come. It was a compelling -- if cloudy -- vision and generated significant conversations throughout the remainder of the week. Matt’s keynote is available here. The most common question I was asked was, “if things progress this way, where does that leave AgGateway?”

I don’t intend to look deeply into the future to a time where AgGateway has achieved its vision of universal connectivity for agricultural data. However, AgGateway doesn’t exist solely to perpetuate itself. The work we do has to have value for the members and the industry.

I think there are a few themes that came out of Matt’s talk to consider today: reference data and semantics. Ontologies are worth discussing, too, but are vastly above my pay grade to address intelligently. I’m educating myself, though!

Since its inception, and even before, AgGateway’s members have relied on the organization to provide the forum for adopting and implementing standards. We typically think of these as the messages, but we also recognize the value of the reference data being exchanged. Identifiers and data about the things they identify are available in reference data repositories such as AGIIS. Where there are reasonable business reasons that one trading partner’s master data might be slightly different than another’s, agreement on reference data allows them both to say, “this identifier or code represents this entity or product, and we agree it’s the same.”

That’s a single use case, and a long established one within the B2B connections implemented to date. Another allows utilities like those that have implemented AgGateway’s In-Field Product ID to look up and display product information on a tractor’s implement control system, linking planting or harvesting records to the actual product purchased and enabling myriad value creation opportunities for the farmer and her partners.

Reference data is a key component for data interoperability, whether for operational, regulatory, or financial use cases. AgGateway has had and will continue to have a role in developing the resources that serve and share such data. We will continue to host the discussions and deliberations that enable you to come to agreement on the types, rules, and quality expectations for such data as business needs evolve.

Semantics covers other tools and resources, such as controlled vocabularies, terminologies, dictionaries, and thesauri. AgGateway’s AgGlossary is an example of such a resource; the Modus codes we maintain, ISO country codes, EPPO codes, etc., are others. Our members, whether multinational or local to a specific geography, increasingly require tools that understand and translate such data for their specific use. AgGateway has a role to play in identifying and making available (or referencing) semantic tools that enable systems to accurately and efficiently exchange and comprehend what is expressed through business messages. We will engage with other organizations that manage semantic resources and educate our members and the industry on their scope, availability, and value.

Every day we hear “farmers just want to farm.” That’s why they still want to ride in their tractors – that’s their happy place, even in the tough seasons. Jeremy tells me that, anyway. In an industry that increasingly relies on technology to address challenges in the availability of labor and meeting consumer expectations while achieving operational excellence, farmers will need the expertise that the business and technical specialists gathered at AgGateway provide. You make the tools that the retailer, farmer, and farm partners use more intelligent, more efficient, and more effective. The resources you develop and implement improve supply chain processes, speed sales program fulfilment, and enable applicable reporting requirements where they exist.

Where does the evolution of interoperable data leave AgGateway? In a very good place. As the board of directors works to fine tune our immediate goals and longer-term priorities through a new five-year plan, I am interested in your perspective. Where do you think our next industry challenge is, and how should we address it? This is why AgGateway exists.