Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has recently highlighted the revolutionary potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in India’s farming industry. In a tweet on X, Nadella explained how AI has immensely benefited the livelihoods of rural sugarcane growers, a majority of whom had been facing debt and severe agricultural conditions due to pests, droughts, and diseases.
Satya Nadella presented a video on X, with a farmer from Battis Shirala, Maharashtra, who used AI to improve yields, reduce the use of chemicals, and save water. Narrating the role of AI in agriculture, he labeled its contribution “phenomenal.”
AI Improving Productivity for Small Farmers
Citing a particular instance, Nadella spoke of a farmer from the Baramati Co-op, who had implemented AI with traditional farming practices. “The one story that I was trying to point out was that of one of the small farmers who belonged to the Baramati Co-op, where you can take this powerful technology but make it make a difference, where a small farmer is able to increase the yield of his land. And the statistics that they presented in terms of chemicals reduced, water usage improved and, finally, yield was unbelievable,” Nadella stated.
Additionally, he noted the role of geospatial data from drones and satellites, which assist farmers in understanding and improving their cultivation techniques in their native languages.
AI will improve everything https://t.co/KqBvDC9ljl
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) February 24, 2025
Elon Musk Reacts to AI’s Role in Farming
Reacting to the video shared by Nadella, tech billionaire Elon Musk expressed his optimism about AI’s potential, writing, “AI will improve everything.”
In 2022, Microsoft introduced an agri-tech initiative in Baramati in association with the Agricultural Development Trust (ADT). The project incorporates AI-based solutions to empower farmers to attain sustainable and high-yielding crops. Additionally, Microsoft Research has been actively engaged in integrating AI, satellite images, and other sophisticated technologies to revolutionize agriculture practices.
Nadella Looks Back on Microsoft’s Blunder
Earlier, Nadella confessed that Microsoft had made one of its biggest blunders by not expecting the dominance of search engines—a space Google seized with success. He conceded that Microsoft had made an incorrect expectation about the web being decentralized, unable to predict the staggering business possibilities of search.
“We (Microsoft) lost what proved to be the largest business model on the web because we all made the assumption the web is all about being distributed,” Nadella said, terming it as a lesson.
