As climate change intensifies and global food demands rise, the agricultural sector faces mounting pressure to innovate. Technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) farming, vertical farming, and robotic farming are reshaping how we grow food, offering both promise and challenges for sustainability and climate resilience. Additionally, challenges such as soil degradation and infertility and water shortages mean that there is a need to innovate the agricultural sector. Although innovation need not only be technological—as there are non-technological ways that have been adopted to address these environmental, climate, and food challenges—this blogpost focuses only on the latest technological innovations.
The Good: Sustainability Gains Through Innovation
AI Farming
AI-powered “precision agriculture” is revolutionizing the way farmers manage their fields. By analyzing real-time data from soil sensors, satellite imagery, pest detectors, and weather forecasts, AI systems can optimize the use of water, fertilizers, pesticides, and pest control management systems, leading to higher yields with fewer inputs. According to a peer-reviewed study published in Smart Agricultural Technology in 2024, AI-driven support tools have the potential to increase crop yields by 15—20% while significantly reducing overall required investment by 25—30% and making farming more efficient by 20—25%.
Another study, in Nature Sustainability in 2025, demonstrated that AI-driven precision agriculture systems can substantially reduce both fertilizer use and carbon emissions by adapting to immediate, field-specific conditions—outperforming conventional and traditional farming practices. This research highlights the broader implications of AI farming for sustainability, which helps to align global climate and agricultural goals with scalable, economically feasible AI solutions in farming. To pursue the development, deployment, and evaluation of AI in agriculture, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) under the Biden administration announced its first comprehensive strategy in January 2025 for integrating AI to advance the USDA’s “mission of ensuring the health, safety, and prosperity of American agriculture.”
Vertical Farming
Vertical farming, which involves growing crops in stacked layers within controlled indoor environments, offers dramatic improvements in resource efficiency. For example, vertical farms can use up to 98% less water than traditional agriculture. These farms can be located near urban centers, which helps to reduce food transportation distances, cutting both emissions and food spoilage. Dyson—yes, the British company behind the famous vacuum cleaner—developed a hybrid vertical system that exemplifies this innovation that cross-cuts AI, vertical farming, and robotic farming: by leveraging robotics and AI for climate control, irrigation, lighting, water use, and harvesting, the farm produces high-quality strawberries year-round with minimal pesticide use and water waste.
Robotic Farming
Robotic farming is another game-changer for sustainability. Robots can automate labor-intensive tasks such as planting, weeding, and harvesting, which increases efficiency and reduces reliance on heavy, fossil-fueled machinery. American farmers have highlighted how agricultural robots can address problems in the sector. These problems include the sector’s high carbon footprint and labor shortages. Robots and AI can help to improve working conditions, including the deployment of robots for farm operations during intense weather conditions that would otherwise be uncomfortable or unsuitable for human laborers. In the UK, one farmer used driverless, autonomous tractors to cultivate soil and plant seeds. They are able to operate for up to 30 hours at a time and cause less damage to the land.
The Bad: Barriers and Environmental Trade-offs
Despite the promising advances made in AI, vertical, and robotic farming, there are significant barriers and trade-offs to consider. Vertical farms, for example, require substantial amounts of electricity to power lighting systems, climate control, and water circulation systems. If this energy comes from fossil fuels, the environmental benefits can be offset or diminished by increased greenhouse gas emissions. A peer-reviewed study in the Journal of Cleaner Production reported in 2022 that the sustainability of vertical farming is highly dependent on the energy mix used.
These innovative systems—AI, robots, and vertical farms—also come with high upfront costs, which makes them less accessible to small and medium-sized farms. This can exacerbate inequalities in the agricultural sector. For example, the USDA Economic Research Service published a report in 2023 that found that “less than 25 percent of smaller farms” use digital agriculture tools like yield monitors and soil maps, among other tools. On top of the variable adoption rate of these advanced tools farms of different sizes, there is another issue – the proliferation of electronic sensors, batteries, and robotic components can contribute to electronic waste (‘e-waste’) if not managed responsibly. Global e-waste is expected to reach 82 million tons by 2030, a 33% increase from 2022.
Data privacy and security are additional concerns, especially as farms become increasingly reliant on cloud-based platforms and data analytics. The risk of cyberattacks or misuse of sensitive farm data is an issue, according to a peer-reviewed study published in Computers and Electronics in Agriculture in 2024.
The Future: Promises and Pathways
Looking ahead, the integration of these technologies with renewable energy sources offers one pathway to a more sustainable agriculture. AI-driven tools and monitors, robots, and vertical farms are innovative ways to facilitate this future. These advances, paired with advances in renewable energy and battery storage, make it increasingly feasible for vertical and robotic farms to operate on clean energy. Dyson’s vertical strawberry farm serves as a case study for the future of food production. However, the sustainability of future case studies will depend on continued innovation and by pairing these innovations with regenerative agricultural practices.
These power-hungry innovations are in jeopardy from the recently passed “Big, Beautiful Bill,” which is set to potentially eradicate “a vast sum of green power that looked set to be built under previous policy, equivalent in capacity to every nuclear plant in the country.” Failure to meet anticipated growth—also resulting from growth in autonomous vehicles, electric vehicles, and data centers—could be disastrous and result in blackouts. The Big, Beautiful Bill is set to eliminate most subsidies for renewable energy systems, especially solar and wind (in 2022, by comparison, U.S. fossil fuel subsidies totaled $757 billion).
Overall, AI farming, vertical farming, and robotic farming are fostering a new age of sustainable agriculture. While each technology presents challenges, their integration—supported by renewable energy, equitable deployment among varied farm sizes, and paired with regenerative agricultural practices—hold the promise of a resilient, climate-smart food system for the future.