Will farm managers be replaced by AI?
Updated
Farm managers score 36 of 100 for AI exposure. The largest share of their task time, 70%, is work AI speeds up while they stay in charge. AI can take over 10% outright, and 20% stays with people.
- 10% AI can do it
- 70% AI helps
- 20% Needs a person
Moderate exposure
Lower than 52% of the 923 occupations we scored.
Task by task
We graded 30 tasks, listed here from most to least exposed. AI can do 3 of them today, speeds up 21 and leaves 6 to people.
| Task | AI exposure |
|---|---|
| Maintain financial, operational, production, or employment records for farms or ranches. Record keeping for finance, production and staff is routine digital work. | 75% AI can do it |
| Prepare reports required by state and federal laws. Regulatory report drafting from records is largely routine document work. | 70% AI can do it |
| Provide information to customers on the care of trees, shrubs, flowers, plants, and lawns. Plant and lawn care advice is well suited to LLM answers. | 60% AI can do it |
| Coordinate clerical, record-keeping, inventory, requisitioning, and marketing activities. Inventory and records automate well; coordination with people stays human. | 58% AI helps |
| Analyze market conditions to determine acreage allocations. Market data analysis is strong AI work; acreage decisions stay human. | 58% AI helps |
| Collect and record growth, production, and environmental data. Sensors and software log data, but people still gather field observations. | 55% AI helps |
| Determine plant growing conditions, such as greenhouses, hydroponics, or natural settings, and set planting and care schedules. AI can build planting and care schedules from site and weather data. | 55% AI helps |
| Determine types or quantities of crops, plants, or livestock to be grown and raised, based on budgets, federal incentives, market conditions, executive directives, projected sales volumes, or soil conditions. AI can model budgets, markets and soil to suggest crop mix. | 55% AI helps |
| Monitor environments to ensure maintenance of optimum animal or plant life. Sensors and AI alerts track conditions; people act on the readings. | 55% AI helps |
| Evaluate marketing or sales alternatives for products. AI can compare sales channels and pricing; choice remains managerial. | 50% AI helps |
Show the other 20 tasks
| Task | AI exposure |
|---|---|
| Analyze soil to determine types or quantities of fertilizer required for maximum crop production. AI can interpret soil lab results and recommend fertilizer rates. | 50% AI helps |
| Determine how to allocate resources and to respond to unanticipated problems, such as insect infestation, drought, and fire. AI can suggest response options; manager decides and remains accountable. | 45% AI helps |
| Position and regulate plant irrigation systems, and program environmental and irrigation control computers. Controller programming is AI-assisted; positioning and regulating systems is physical. | 40% AI helps |
| Determine, administer, and execute policies relating to operations administration and standards, facility maintenance, and safety. AI can draft policies and safety procedures; enforcement stays with people. | 40% AI helps |
| Obtain financing for and purchase necessary machinery, land, supplies, or livestock. AI can prepare loan applications and compare options; purchases need approval. | 40% AI helps |
| Negotiate with buyers for the sale, storage, or shipment of crops or livestock. AI can draft offers and compare prices; negotiation stays with the manager. | 35% AI helps |
| Replace chemical insecticides with environmentally friendly practices, such as adding pest-repelling plants to fields. AI can plan pest-repelling layouts; field implementation is physical. | 35% AI helps |
| Devise and participate in activities to improve fish hatching and growth rates, and to prevent disease in hatcheries. AI can suggest hatchery improvements; disease work needs expert hands-on care. | 30% AI helps |
| Direct the breeding or raising of stock, such as cattle, poultry, or honeybees, using recognized breeding practices to ensure stock improvement. Genetic and breeding data analysis helps; livestock handling stays physical. | 30% AI helps |
| Conduct inspections to determine crop maturity or condition or to detect disease or insect infestation. Image analysis can flag maturity or disease; field inspection is manual. | 30% AI helps |
| Monitor activities, such as irrigation, chemical application, harvesting, milking, breeding, and grading, to ensure adherence to safety regulations or standards. Cameras and checklists assist compliance; on-site observation remains human. | 25% AI helps |
| Coordinate the selection and maintenance of brood stock. Records guide stock selection; physical handling and maintenance remain manual. | 25% AI helps |
| Manage nurseries that grow horticultural plants for sale to trade or retail customers, for display or exhibition, or for research. Planning and scheduling aided by AI; physical nursery work stays with people. | 22% AI helps |
| Hire, supervise, and train support workers. AI can draft job posts and training materials; supervision stays personal. | 22% AI helps |
| Direct crop production operations, such as planning, tilling, planting, fertilizing, cultivating, spraying, and harvesting. Tilling, planting and harvesting are physical field operations. | 15% Needs a person |
| Supervise the construction of farm or ranch structures, such as buildings, fences, drainage systems, wells, or roads. Supervising physical construction of buildings, fences and wells on site. | 15% Needs a person |
| Conduct or supervise stock examinations to identify diseases or parasites. Examining live animals for disease needs physical inspection and vet skill. | 12% Needs a person |
| Direct and monitor trapping and spawning of fish, egg incubation, and fry rearing, applying knowledge of management and fish culturing techniques. Hands-on fish trapping, spawning and rearing needs physical presence. | 10% Needs a person |
| Inspect facilities and equipment for signs of disrepair, and perform necessary maintenance work. Inspecting and repairing equipment requires physical hands-on work. | 8% Needs a person |
| Direct and monitor the transfer of mature fish to lakes, ponds, streams, or commercial tanks. Physically moving live fish to water bodies needs on-site people. | 6% Needs a person |
How farm managers compare
All occupations (923)
Management (56)
Pay and outlook in the US
- Median pay
- $89,900 a year, May 2025
- People employed
- 6,500 in the US, May 2025
- Projected change in jobs
- -3.4% from 2024 to 2034
Skills to build
- Run acreage and market scenario models in Microsoft Excel
- Record field observations that sensors and software miss
- Review regulatory reports drafted in Microsoft Word before filing
- Supervise tilling, planting, spraying and harvesting crews on site
- Conduct livestock examinations for disease and parasites
- Coordinate crew schedules and contractors in Microsoft Outlook
Safer roles nearby
5 related occupations with lower scores.
Questions about farm managers and AI
Will AI replace farm managers?
Partly. About 4 in 10 working hours go to tasks AI can already do, mostly keeping financial, production and employment records and drafting reports required by state and federal laws. Field work, crew supervision and planting decisions stay with the manager because they need a person on the land.
Which tasks is AI taking over for farm managers?
Record keeping and report drafting lead the list. Keeping financial, production and employment records scores 75 on exposure, and drafting state and federal reports from those records scores 70, since both are routine digital work. Customer advice on plant and lawn care, at 60, also suits AI answers well.
Which tasks stay with farm managers?
Field operations stay with people. Directing tilling, planting, spraying and harvesting scores 15 on exposure because those are physical jobs done on the ground. Supervising construction of fences, wells and drainage also scores 15, since crews need someone on site. Stock examinations for disease score 12, because they need hands on live animals.
How can farm managers stay valuable as AI spreads?
Stay on the ground and in the decisions. Walk fields to record the observations sensors miss, then check software-logged data in Excel before it reaches lenders. Use Excel to test market scenarios for acreage choices, and keep the final call and crew coordination with you. Review every regulatory report in Microsoft Word before filing.
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