RESEARCH PAPER
DEVELOPMENT OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND POTENTIAL IMPACT OF ITS APPLICATIONS IN AGRICULTURE ON LABOR USE AND PRODUCTIVITY
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Institute of Agricultural and Food Economics National Research Institute
Submission date: 2022-07-06
Final review date: 2022-07-25
Acceptance date: 2022-09-06
Publication date: 2022-12-22
Zagadnienia Ekonomiki Rolnej / Problems of Agricultural Economics 2022;373(4):5-21
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ABSTRACT
Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most striking recent technology developments. Potentially, it can
significantly affect all areas of economic activities including agriculture. The paper addresses two issues
such as the actual essence of AI and its most important current and expected future applications in
agriculture and their potential impact on labor use and productivity of this sector. The research methods
applied in the paper are critical analysis of selected literature sources and deductive reasoning regarding
the likely influence of AI applications on labor use in agriculture and its total factor productivity. It was
found out that applications of AI in agriculture are numerous and very diverse both in terms of technological
solutions and managed processes. Moreover, the market for AI applications in agriculture is
expected to grow quite rapidly due to an increasing tendency to automatize agricultural production and
marketing processes. This inevitably leads to substitution of physical labor with sophisticated machinery
and robots. Also, it generates demand for new labor competencies needed to manage increasingly capital
intensive agricultural production and related processes driven by the use of AI. Based on mainly theoretical
considerations, it can be surmised that widespread use of AI in agriculture should positively contribute
to the growth in the total factor productivity (TFP) of the sector. Consequently, countries where
agricultural producers adopt AI solutions faster can gain competitive advantage in food production.