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Have you found yourself asking, “What approach should I take with ag tech in 2027?” That’s an important question, but one that’s not easy to answer.
As of 2026, ag tech options have ballooned to hundreds of products and services, spanning precision irrigation sensors, drone imaging platforms, farm management software, AI yield-prediction tools and robotics. New solutions launch constantly, while others are discontinued or folded into larger platforms.
Meantime, higher input costs and lower crop prices are additional financial stressors that make these decisions even harder.
Whether you’re on the hunt for the latest bells and whistles, or just want to maximize what you already have in hand, here are three ideas to help guide those decisions:
1. Fine-tune your machinery. To buy or not to buy — that is not actually the first question you should ask. Instead, look at your existing iron to make sure it is optimized for synching with the ag tech you already own, according to Bryce Baker, North America tactical marketing lead with Precision Planting.
“Make sure the base machine is in really good shape,” he said. “For example, there are so many row units on a planter that can wear out. If those aren’t maintained, any technology you add won’t have much of a benefit.”
This is especially true now that we’re in a cycle where farmers may be holding on to farm equipment longer, Baker added.
Aside from that, the easiest place for a farmer to gain a return on investment is looking at any tech that provides input savings, which Baker sees as having a resurgence.
“There’s swath control, where a sprayer can go from 10 sections down to individual nozzle control,” he said. “But with the advent of targeted spraying systems, there’s a whole new level of input savings that can be achieved where we can apply only where it’s needed.”
2. Review what you have before you add more. Another struggle lies with the deluge of data you have already collected over the past several seasons. Is it truly being used to your advantage or collecting proverbial dust on a hard drive or in the cloud?
“We’re definitely not looking into investing into any new technology,” said Stephanie Cook, who farms near Davenport, N.D. “Quite frankly, the money’s not there to do that. But what we are looking at is the technology on our farm that we are currently underutilizing and figure out how to use them better.”
For example, Cook wants to get more out of her yield maps to develop better variable-rate fertilizer and seed population strategies. That’s not a journey to be taken alone, either.
“I intend to work closely with our precision farming specialists at our equipment dealers and really becoming a partner with those people to avoid using those tools by trial and error,” she said.
Quentin Connealy, a fifth-generation farmer in eastern Nebraska, said he has been dipping his toes into a lot of data and fine-tuning how it works for him.
Like Cook, Connealy also values agribusiness partnerships. This year, he helped pilot an AI program called AskMyFarm that creates a “digital memory” of fields and projects yields. That new knowledge could pay dividends as he heads into the 2027 season.
Connealy is also looking at a possible paradigm shift. Instead of chasing the biggest yields, ROI on individual products and practices is becoming increasingly important.
“Other than that, we try a few different products every year and try to pinpoint ones that work on our farm because every farm is different,” he said.
Customer support can be nearly as important as the products themselves, Connealy added.
“A lot of these companies have a great idea, but they don’t have the people to back it to help the farmer learn,” he said. “Sometimes the people who service the technology can be thousands of miles away.”
3. Determine if you can DIY. Travis Senter Jr., a third-generation farmer in northeast Arkansas, said he’s been doing “high-end tech stuff forever,” but there’s always something new to learn.
“I’d say within the last two or three weeks, I’ve spent nights and nights making programs to do anything I can to give myself an edge,” he said.
Senter has kept himself busy with vibe coding — a new DIY approach to tech adoption that is empowering more farmers to unlock data discoveries by themselves. The process requires equal parts determination and imagination.
“Every farmer records an insane amount of data,” he said. “You can look at it all you want, but unless you can visually interpret it, it doesn’t help. That’s where AI has come in and changed the game. We used to know the questions, but now we know how to get the answers.”
For Senter, that means making tools he wants on his operation rather than waiting for someone else to do it. He not only considers yield data by itself but also planting dates, inputs, dew points, temperatures, rainfall and much more. All of this leads to smarter scenario planning for the current season — and the next.
“I just have to know what I want and how to present it,” he said. “And it doesn’t stop with just one question. It starts with a question and ends with an entire conversation.”
How to get good vibes
Vibe coding is a new way of building software using artificial intelligence. Instead of learning how to program software, you can describe what you want in plain English and let AI handle the rest.
For example, you could say, “Build me a tool that tracks soil moisture across my fields and alerts me when irrigation is needed.” The AI would then generate an app based on that description.
How do you get started? First, choose your tool. Several beginner-friendly platforms exist including Google AI Studio, Claude Code and Base44. You’ll need to write a clear prompt stating what you want the app to do and what features it needs. Then, test it via a live preview to see if it works to your liking, or if you need to go back to the drawing board. YouTube has multiple tutorial videos on the process.