Major AI Transformation in Korean Agriculture: Maximizing Productivity and Efficiency
Developing Innovative Agricultural Robots to Replace Manual Labor
Expanding LLM Chatbot 'AI Daedongi' into an Agentic AI
Artificial intelligence (AI) agricultural machinery and robots are now able to make independent decisions to carry out farming tasks, while cultivation AI predicts crop growth and proposes optimal strategies. This is the so-called vision of "AI-powered future agriculture." A concrete blueprint for realizing this has been unveiled. It is being driven by the "AI Transformation of Korean Agriculture" initiative led by the Daedong Group. For this purpose, AI technologies focusing on mobility, operation, and cultivation are being developed.
Daedong AI Lab, Daedong’s subsidiary specializing in AI robot software, held a media briefing at Daedong’s Seoul office in Seocho-gu, Seoul, on the 17th and outlined the development direction for the three major AI technologies in agriculture. Daedong AI Lab plans to develop these three core AI technologies?mobility, operation, and cultivation?and apply them across the group’s businesses, including smart agricultural machinery, agricultural robots, precision agriculture, and smart farms.
Chun Ki Choi, CEO of Daedong AI Lab, is explaining the three major AI technologies in agriculture at a meeting on the 17th. Daedong
First, "mobility AI" enables agricultural machinery and robots to independently determine their driving routes and perform optimal tasks, even in outdoor environments. This requires vision-based autonomous driving technology. Since last year, Daedong has collected approximately 500,000 photos of orchards and fields and about 3 million driving videos to build an autonomous driving AI optimized for Korean farmland environments. Starting with a Level 4 autonomous tractor scheduled for release in the first half of 2026, Daedong AI Lab plans to expand the application of mobility AI to various types of agricultural machinery and robots.
"Operation AI" refers to physical AI technologies in agriculture that allow agricultural machinery and robots to perform a variety of farming tasks. The goal is to automate labor-intensive manual work previously done by humans, thereby improving efficiency and sustainability in the agricultural field. Daedong is currently developing an autonomous operation model focused on tillage tasks performed by tractors, which analyzes soil conditions and evaluates work quality in real time using cameras and sensors. This model aims to reduce work time by up to 30% and improve fuel efficiency by 15% compared to existing autonomous operation systems. In addition, Daedong is advancing a multifunctional robot based on imitation learning, which was unveiled at CES this year, to accelerate the development of agricultural robots for strawberry and tomato cultivation. During the briefing, a demonstration was held showing remote-controlled robots using two robotic arms to harvest strawberries, remove leaves, and collect data.
"Cultivation AI" digitizes the experience and knowledge of skilled farmers, enabling anyone to grow crops reliably. It predicts crop growth and provides customized cultivation strategies based on data collected from satellites, drones, and smart agricultural machinery. After four years of field trials, Daedong commercialized precision agriculture services for rice this year in open-field farming. In the greenhouse sector, Daedong AI Lab is developing fruit cultivation AI for smart farms. The strawberry growth prediction AI is scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2026. In the future, Daedong plans to upgrade its agricultural LLM (large language model) chatbot "AI Daedongi" to an agentic AI, allowing any farmer to easily ask questions about cultivation methods and receive optimal strategies.
Chun Ki Choi, CEO of Daedong AI Lab, stated, "For AI to deliver value in agriculture, it must start with a thorough understanding of the field and a clear decision on which problems to solve. Daedong AI Lab will use field data to make agriculture easier and smarter, contributing to the sustainable growth of an AI-based agricultural industry."
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