Verified
John Deere
Piloting- Industrials
- ~73,100 employees (2025)
- Central tech stack under the CTO
- See & Spray on 5M+ acres (2025)
- JD assistant in early access
John Deere deploys AI mainly in its machines and its Operations Center data platform, through a central technology stack run by CTO Jahmy Hindman: machine learning drives See & Spray, which covered more than 5 million acres in 2025, harvest automation, and autonomous tillage and orchard spraying. John Deere put JD, a generative AI assistant over farmers' own data, into early access on Sep 1, 2026, on a large language model it declines to name. John Deere has published no employee AI platform, user count or AI-credited return.
deere.comTheir approach to AI
- The platform
- John Deere runs AI through a central technology stack it built in-house, from cameras and compute on the machine to the cloud-based John Deere Operations Center, where the JD generative AI assistant entered early access in Sep 2026.
- The models
- John Deere trains its own machine learning perception models for See & Spray and autonomy, with more than 10 trillion agronomic and machine measurements in its training data (Dec 2025), and runs JD on a frontier large language model it declines to name (Sep 2026).
- The reach
- John Deere's AI reaches customers more than staff: nearly 1.2 million connected machines, 520 million engaged acres and more than 450,000 monthly digital users in Aug 2026; Deere has published no employee AI tool or user count.
- The catch
- John Deere has credited no business return to AI, and in Dec 2025 pushed its goal of 10% of revenue from recurring sources, such as technology licenses, beyond 2030, citing a softer farm market and slower adoption.
Snapshot
- Employees
- ~73,100
- Nov 2, 2025, including about 32,500 full-time production employees (FY2025 10-K)
- Technology budget
- Not disclosed
- Research and development expense was $2.31B in FY2025
- AI/ML headcount
- Not disclosed
- Blue River Technology had about 60 people when Deere agreed to buy it in 2017
- Who owns AI
- Jahmy Hindman, SVP and CTO
- CTO since 2020; runs the technology stack shared by all divisions
- Platform
- John Deere Operations Center, built in-house
- JD, the AI assistant inside it, in early access since Sep 2026
- Models
- In-house ML; undisclosed LLM for JD
- Deere declined to name JD's model maker (Sep 2026)
- Reach
- 450,000+ monthly digital users
- Customers, Aug 2026; employee AI use not disclosed
- Use cases
- No count published
- Named uses span spraying, harvest, autonomy, repair and the JD assistant
Key findings
John Deere's See & Spray, which uses cameras and machine learning to spray only weeds, covered more than 5 million acres in 2025, and Deanna Kovar said on Aug 20, 2026 that it is on about a third of North American sprayers on order in the early order program, which would nearly double its factory adoption.
John Deere introduced JD, a generative AI assistant inside the John Deere Operations Center, on Sep 1, 2026 in a limited early access program for selected U.S. farmers; Deere declined to name the large language model behind it and told DTN that farm data in JD will not be used to train JD or any other AI system.
Jahmy Hindman told investors on Dec 8, 2025 that John Deere's training data holds more than 10 trillion agronomic and machine measurements, that Deere processed half a petabyte of machine data in 2024, and that each new autonomous application could reach market 50% faster than the one before.
John Deere's leadership changed in 2026: Raj Kalathur retired as President of John Deere Financial and Chief Information Officer on Jan 31, 2026, Brent Norwood became CFO on May 1, 2026, and Deere's leadership page listed no Chief Information Officer on Nov 1, 2026.
John Deere has credited no business return to AI: in Dec 2025 it moved its target of 10% of revenue from recurring sources beyond 2030, and the 50% to 60% herbicide savings it reports for See & Spray over two seasons accrue to farmers, not to Deere.
Where Deere sits
- Stage
- Piloting
John Deere sits at Piloting: machine learning runs in production inside its products, including See & Spray on more than 5 million acres in 2025, harvest automation, autonomous orchard spraying and obstacle detection on construction machines, and SVP and CTO Jahmy Hindman runs one technology stack that serves every division. John Deere falls short of Scaling on the internal tests: its FY2025 10-K says only that it uses generative AI in business processes, it has published no AI platform open to most of its about 73,100 employees, no count of use cases and no AI-credited return, and its first generative AI assistant for customers, JD, was in limited early access in Sep 2026.
How the stages are defined - Ownership
- SVP and CTO Jahmy Hindman, who runs the central technology stack
- Platform
- Hybrid: Tech stack and Operations Center built in-house; JD's language model bought
- Models
- In-house machine learning perception models; JD on an undisclosed frontier LLM
- Hosting
- Cameras and GPUs on the machines for vision and autonomy; Operations Center data at the edge and in cloud environments John Deere does not name (AWS lists Deere as a customer); JD's model host undisclosed
- Reach
- ~1.2M connected machines, 450,000+ monthly digital users (Aug 2026); employee use not disclosed
How they deploy
One technology stack for every division
John Deere has built its sensing, compute, connectivity, control and data technology itself from the start, Jahmy Hindman told investors on Dec 8, 2025, so the same parts serve tractors, sprayers, mowers and road building machines. Hindman said Deere moved its G5 display and compute unit from farm machines into earthmoving and road building within a year, and that the perception model for autonomous commercial mowing started from the large ag tillage model, cutting the data needed to train it. Hindman estimated that each new autonomous application could reach market 50% faster than the one before.
Data from connected machines
John Deere has connected machines in both directions for 14 years, and Jahmy Hindman said in Dec 2025 that Deere processed half a petabyte of machine data in 2024 and holds more than 10 trillion agronomic and machine measurements in its training data. Hindman described large language models as the language of farming: a way for farm and job site managers to ask questions of their own data in plain language. JD, launched in early access on Sep 1, 2026, is the first product built on that idea.
Automation on the path to autonomy
John Deere's Smart Industrial strategy, launched in 2020, adds automation one job step at a time with full autonomy as the end point, Jahmy Hindman said in Dec 2025. Deere runs autonomy in large ag tillage, showed an autonomous stand-on mower at CES in Jan 2025, and sells GUSS autonomous orchard sprayers, which had sprayed more than 2.8 million acres by Dec 2025.
Charging for technology as a service
John Deere sells much of its AI as Solutions as a Service, licensed per acre or per year: See & Spray came with an application savings guarantee in 2025, under which customers pay only when it saves them money, and an unlimited annual license for high-use operations in 2026 (Cory Reed, Dec 2025). Deere said in Dec 2025 that its goal of 10% of revenue from recurring sources will take longer than 2030 to reach. John Deere makes JD free to Operations Center users (DTN, Sep 2026).
Buying capability
John Deere has bought much of its machine learning and digital capability: Blue River Technology, which brought computer vision and machine learning for targeted spraying, for $305 million in 2017; SparkAI and Smart Apply for a combined $82 million in 2023; several small technology businesses and the rest of an equity-method investment for a combined $115 million in 2025; and Tenna, a construction fleet operations and asset tracking platform, for $439 million in Feb 2026.
- Deployment model
- John Deere runs AI through a central technology stack under SVP and CTO Jahmy Hindman, whose organization supplies hardware, software and data insights to the equipment divisions, as CFO Josh Jepsen described it in Dec 2025. The divisions own the products that carry AI: See & Spray and harvest automation in Production & Precision Ag, GUSS and autonomous mowing in Small Ag & Turf, and SmartDetect in Construction & Forestry. Lifecycle Solutions under Cory Reed runs Operations Center PRO Service and the technology licensing business, and a Customer AI Solutions product team works on customer-facing AI such as JD (Sep 2026).
- Model providers
- John Deere builds its own machine learning models for perception and agronomy: the computer vision that tells weeds from crops came with Blue River Technology in 2017, and the perception model for autonomous commercial mowing was first sourced from the large ag tillage model (Jahmy Hindman, Dec 2025). For JD, John Deere uses a frontier large language model whose maker it declines to name, citing the pace of change, and Melissa Neuendorf told The Robot Report in Sep 2026 that Deere keeps the right to swap the underlying engine. JD draws its answers from a farmer's own operation data, which can include other brands' machines and, with permission, third-party apps, rather than from the general knowledge held in the model (DTN, Sep 2026).
- Data and infrastructure
- John Deere's FY2025 10-K says the John Deere Operations Center stores data at the edge and in cloud environments, that Deere uses the data to develop machine learning, large language models and SaaS products, and that Deere keeps confidential data in data centers often owned by third parties; Deere does not name its cloud providers. AWS publishes a case study saying John Deere builds on AWS services such as Amazon DynamoDB, Kinesis, OpenSearch Service and S3 as part of a cloud migration, without saying whether Operations Center or Deere's AI models run there. See & Spray Ultimate carries 36 cameras and GPUs on the sprayer to make decisions in the field. The John Deere Operations Center is the front end of the data platform and is free to any farmer regardless of the age or color of their equipment (The Robot Report, Sep 2026). John Deere had more than 1 million connected machines in Dec 2025 and nearly 1.2 million in Aug 2026, and has sold more than 12,500 JDLink Boost kits since the second half of 2024 that connect machines through Starlink satellites where cell coverage is poor (May 2026).
Platforms and internal tools
John Deere Operations CenterMore than a decade ago
The John Deere Operations Center is Deere's cloud platform that brings together field, machine and operational data for farmers, construction contractors and landscapers, and is the front end of the data platform behind Deere's machine learning. John Deere set goals in Dec 2025 of 600 million engaged acres by 2030, with 50% highly engaged, and 1 million unique active monthly digital users.
- Users
- 450,000+ unique active monthly digital users; 520M+ engaged acres; nearly 1.2M connected machines (Aug 2026)
JDSep 2026, early access
JD is the generative AI assistant built into the John Deere Operations Center that answers farmers' plain-language questions about their own field, machine and operational data. JD runs on the Operations Center web and mobile apps and the Equipment Mobile app, will later come to the G5 cab display, costs nothing extra, and in its first versions analyzes data but cannot make decisions or act in the cab. John Deere plans to launch JD in Latin America by the end of 2026 (The AgriBiz, Sep 2026).
- Users
- Limited early access program for selected U.S. farmers (Sep 2026)
- Models
- Frontier large language model, maker undisclosed
See & Spray2021 in the U.S.; 2025 in Brazil
See & Spray uses cameras and machine learning to tell weeds from crops and spray only the weeds, and See & Spray Gen 2 can also vary rates by measuring living biomass. See & Spray Gen 2 hardware comes standard on 2027 and newer 400R and 600R sprayers, with in-crop passes requiring a renewable software license; three quarters of the See & Spray machines in the field in 2025 were retrofits.
- Users
- More than 5 million acres in 2025
- Models
- John Deere machine learning, from the Blue River Technology acquisition
Operations Center PRO ServiceJul 2025
Operations Center PRO Service is John Deere's self-repair tool, sold as an annual license from $195, with software reprogramming, calibrations and interactive diagnostics. PRO Service includes Ask AI, which answers questions from help documentation and operator manuals.
- Users
- Thousands of customers, nearly 1,000 daily active users (Aug 2026)
Autonomy stack
John Deere's autonomy shares hardware and perception models across products: the Autonomous 8R tractor with a tillage tool decides in 100 milliseconds whether to keep moving or stop and can prepare up to 325 acres in 24 hours, the commercial mowing product uses the same hardware, and GUSS sprayers and the 5ML tractor work autonomously in orchards.
Vendors and partners
Blue River TechnologySep 2017
Computer vision and machine learning for targeted spraying; acquired · John Deere agreed to invest $305 million to buy the Sunnyvale company, then about 60 people; John May, then President, Agricultural Solutions, and CIO, announced the deal.
StarlinkSecond half of 2024
Satellite connectivity for JDLink Boost kits · John Deere had sold more than 12,500 JDLink Boost kits by May 2026, with sales up 25% in the latest quarter.
Iowa State University
Independent evaluation of AI value; site of the JD launch event · Jahmy Hindman said in Sep 2026 that Deere tests its AI itself and also uses independent third parties, such as Iowa State, to evaluate the value; Deere launched JD at a press event at the university's Digital Ag Innovation Lab.
SparkAI and Smart Apply2023
Smart technology for Deere products; acquired · Combined cost $82 million, net of cash acquired (FY2025 10-K).
TennaFeb 2026
Mixed-fleet equipment operations and asset tracking for construction; acquired · Purchase price $439 million, net of cash acquired; assigned to Construction & Forestry (Q3 FY2026 10-Q).
MicrosoftJan 2023
Dynamics 365 dealer business system · John Deere announced a multi-year rollout of a common Dynamics 365 business system for its dealers; Deere has not named Microsoft as an AI or cloud provider.
Amazon Web Services
Cloud services · An AWS case study says John Deere builds on Amazon DynamoDB, Kinesis, OpenSearch Service and S3 as part of a cloud migration; neither company says whether Operations Center or Deere's AI models run on AWS.
Reservoir2025
Agtech incubator for rugged AI in specialty crops; Deere is its equipment partner and an investor · John Deere committed $10 million over three years to Reservoir in Aug 2026 to speed the development and commercialization of rugged physical AI for specialty crops (AgNavigator).
Leadership
AI, data and platform leaders
Executives
AI org map
Central technology stack under the CTO; AI products owned by the equipment divisions and Lifecycle Solutions
John Deere centralized its technology development under the Smart Industrial strategy it launched in 2020: SVP and CTO Jahmy Hindman runs the hardware, embedded software, connectivity, data platforms and applications that every division uses, and the John Deere Operations Center is the shared front end. The three equipment divisions, led by Deanna Kovar, Justin Rose and Ryan Campbell, own the machines that carry AI, while Cory Reed's Lifecycle Solutions organization runs repair tools, aftermarket and technology licensing. Raj Kalathur, who combined the presidency of John Deere Financial with the Chief Information Officer role and whom a Deere spokesperson credited with speeding the company's adoption of AI and automation (CIO Dive, Dec 2025), retired on Jan 31, 2026.
John Deere has not published how many people work on AI or data science. Blue River Technology had about 60 people when Deere agreed to buy it in 2017, and The Robot Report described a Deere AI development team that has tracked generative AI for about three years (Sep 2026). Melissa Neuendorf's title places customer-facing AI in a Customer AI Solutions product group, and the technology stack that serves every division sits under CTO Jahmy Hindman.
Reporting lines
Chairman and CEO
Chief Technology Officer and technology stack
Jahmy Hindman, SVP and CTO
Hardware, embedded software, connectivity, data platforms and applications shared across divisions; line to the CEO inferred from executive officer status, not published
Production & Precision Ag
Deanna Kovar, President
See & Spray, harvest automation and large ag autonomy; Americas and Australia
Small Ag & Turf
Justin Rose, President
GUSS, autonomous mowing and Pro Landscape; Europe, Africa and Asia
Construction & Forestry and Power Systems
Ryan Campbell, President
SmartDetect, predictive maintenance and Tenna
Lifecycle Solutions, Supply Management, and Customer Success
Cory Reed, President
PRO Service, aftermarket, supply chain and Solutions as a Service
Finance
Brent Norwood, SVP and CFO
Global IT
Chief Information Officer, not listed since Jan 31, 2026
Raj Kalathur held the role until he retired; reporting line not published
Cybersecurity Team
Chief Information Security Officer, not named
The CISO reports directly to the CIO (FY2025 10-K)
Digital Risk Governance Council
Cross-functional senior executives who oversee digital risk, including the Cybersecurity Team (FY2025 10-K)
John Deere's leadership page, checked Nov 1, 2026, lists a management team with no Chief Information Officer, and Deere has not published who now leads Global IT or John Deere Financial after Raj Kalathur's retirement. Deere does not publish reporting lines; the units here report to the CEO by inference from the FY2025 10-K list of executive officers.
Where the AI workforce sits
Central technology stack under the CTO
John Deere has not published AI or data science headcount, or where Blue River Technology sits today.
Not disclosedEquipment divisions and Lifecycle Solutions
The divisions own AI products such as See & Spray, GUSS and SmartDetect, and Lifecycle Solutions runs PRO Service.
Not disclosed
Named people
Use cases
John Deere's published AI use cases sit mostly in its products: machine learning in See & Spray, harvest automation, autonomous tillage, orchard spraying and mowing, obstacle detection on construction machines, predictive maintenance, and AI assistants in the Operations Center and PRO Service. John Deere has reported no business return credited to AI for any of them; the figures it publishes are customer outcomes, such as 50% to 60% herbicide savings with See & Spray, and adoption measures, such as 5 million See & Spray acres in 2025. Inside the company, Deere's FY2025 10-K says it uses generative AI in business processes and AI-driven analytics in manufacturing, without naming tools or results.
| Use case | Area | Status | ROI |
|---|---|---|---|
| See & Spray targeted spraying See & Spray uses cameras and machine learning to tell weeds from crops and spray only the weeds; it launched in the U.S. in 2021 and Brazil in 2025, covered more than 5 million acres in 2025, and now targets wheat, barley and canola as well as corn, soybeans and cotton. | Production & Precision Ag | In production | |
| See & Scout field insights See & Scout uses the See & Spray cameras to record weed pressure maps, stand counts and other field data into Operations Center on every pass, and comes standard on See & Spray Gen 2 sprayers from 2027. | Production & Precision Ag | Announced | |
| Harvest settings automation Combine automation, which a John Deere vice president said runs on cameras, artificial intelligence and high-speed computing (DTN, Jan 2026), adjusts harvest settings and ground speed as the machine works; John Deere said in Feb 2026 that it reached more than 60% utilization in the fall 2025 harvest and that 99% of combines ordered in the early order program included some level of harvest automation. | Production & Precision Ag | In production | |
| Autonomous tillage The Autonomous 8R tractor with a tillage tool works without an operator, decides in 100 milliseconds whether to keep moving or stop, and can prepare up to 325 acres in 24 hours; Deanna Kovar said in Dec 2025 that retrofit autonomy kits for current and earlier 8R and 9R tractors would ship for the spring 2026 tillage season, and John Deere has not said how many run on farms. | Production & Precision Ag | In production | |
| JD AI assistant JD answers farmers' plain-language questions about their own data, such as how tillage fuel use compares with the last three years or which sprayer operator covers the most acres per hour; the first versions analyze data but cannot act in the cab. | Operations Center | Pilot | |
| Ask AI in PRO Service Ask AI, released in 2025 inside Operations Center PRO Service, answers repair and setup questions from John Deere help documentation and operator manuals, and a Deere product manager called it the most popular PRO Service feature (Oct 2026). | Lifecycle Solutions | In production | |
| AI tools for technicians Cory Reed said in Dec 2025 that AI is foundational for the thousands of technicians who maintain and repair John Deere equipment, and that Deere uses connected-machine data to predict failures and stock parts ahead of them. | Lifecycle Solutions | In production | |
| Predictive maintenance John Deere's construction and forestry parts and service business uses sensor data and AI on machine usage to predict when issues will occur and choose how to intervene, often before unplanned downtime (Ryan Campbell, Dec 2025). | Construction & Forestry | In production | |
| SmartDetect obstacle detection SmartDetect combines cameras, radar and machine learning to flag obstacles on construction job sites, technology John Deere carried over from its agriculture segment. | Construction & Forestry | In production | |
| GUSS autonomous orchard sprayers GUSS autonomous sprayers had logged 600,000 autonomous hours and sprayed more than 2.8 million acres by Dec 2025, and John Deere said a medium-sized operation can cut its spraying crew from eight operators to two. | Small Ag & Turf | In production | |
| Autonomous commercial mowing John Deere showed an autonomous stand-on mower at CES in Jan 2025, built on the same hardware as its large ag tillage autonomy and on a perception model first trained for tillage. | Small Ag & Turf | Announced | |
| AI property measurement in Pro Landscape John Deere Pro Landscape, a version of Operations Center for landscape contractors, uses AI on publicly available satellite imagery to measure properties for bids without a site visit (Dec 2025). | Small Ag & Turf | In production | |
| JD for turf, construction, road building and forestry John Deere plans JD capabilities for its turf, construction, road building and forestry customers. | Construction & Forestry | Announced | |
| Generative AI in business processes John Deere's FY2025 10-K says Deere uses generative AI in its business processes, without naming the tools, the processes or how many employees use them. | Enterprise | In production | |
| AI-driven analytics in factories John Deere's FY2025 10-K says Deere is integrating AI-driven analytics and advanced robotics into its manufacturing processes where appropriate. | Manufacturing | In production |
Adoption
John Deere reports adoption of its AI and digital tools by customers, not employees. Engaged acres in the John Deere Operations Center passed 500 million by Dec 2025 and reached more than 520 million across nearly 1.2 million connected machines in Aug 2026, with highly engaged acres above 190 million; unique active monthly digital users grew from about 400,000 in Dec 2025 to about 440,000 in May 2026 and more than 450,000 in Aug 2026, against a 2030 goal of 1 million. See & Spray grew from about 1 million acres in its first year to more than 5 million in 2025, three quarters of the machines in the field were retrofits, and about a third of North American sprayers ordered for model year 2027 include it. John Deere has published no figures on employee use of AI tools.
By the numbers
Rollout, first pilot to today
Sep 2017
John Deere agreed to buy Blue River Technology, a 60-person Sunnyvale company applying computer vision and machine learning to spraying, for $305 million.
2020
John Deere launched its Smart Industrial strategy, built around production systems, a central technology stack and lifecycle solutions.
2021
John Deere launched See & Spray in the U.S.
2023
John Deere bought SparkAI and Smart Apply for a combined $82 million to speed the integration of smart technology into its products.
Jan 2025
John Deere showed an autonomous stand-on mower at CES, extending autonomy beyond large ag tillage.
2025
John Deere released Ask AI inside Operations Center PRO Service, an AI search of operator manuals and help documentation that guides users through diagnostic steps.
2025
See & Spray covered more than 5 million acres, launched in Brazil, and gained an application savings guarantee under which customers pay only when it saves them money.
Jul 2025
John Deere launched Operations Center PRO Service, a self-repair tool sold as an annual license from $195.
Aug 2025
The Robot Report dates John Deere's first AI product announcement, Help AI in Operations Center for equipment setup and repair questions, to Aug 2025.
Dec 2025
John Deere told investors it had connected more than 1 million machines and reached 500 million engaged acres, set a goal of 1 million monthly digital users by 2030, described plans to let customers query their data with large language models, and said retrofit autonomy kits for 8R and 9R tractors would be available for the spring 2026 tillage season.
Sep 2026
John Deere put JD, a generative AI assistant inside Operations Center, into a limited early access program for selected U.S. farmers.
Economics & controls
Spend and ROI
Technology budget
John Deere does not publish an IT or AI budget. Deere's research and development expense was $2.311 billion in FY2025, against $2.290 billion in FY2024 and $2.177 billion in FY2023, in a year when net sales and revenues fell to $45.7 billion (FY2025 10-K). Brent Norwood said in May 2026 that Deere would keep R&D and capital investment steady through the cycle.
What AI itself costs
John Deere has not disclosed what it spends on AI or on the language model behind JD. Deere's FY2025 10-K warns that developing its own AI applications will require more investment in proprietary systems, models and datasets and may raise the cost profile of its products. Deere's technology acquisitions since 2017 include Blue River Technology for $305 million, SparkAI and Smart Apply for $82 million, small technology businesses and the rest of an equity-method investment for a combined $115 million in 2025, and Tenna for $439 million in 2026.
How John Deere charges for AI
John Deere sells See & Spray in-crop passes through a renewable software license, while fallow passes cost nothing extra, and in 2026 added an unlimited annual license for high-use operations. JD is free to Operations Center users, and PRO Service starts at $195 a year. Raj Kalathur said in Dec 2025 that John Deere Financial had financed nearly half of all See & Spray licenses in the U.S.
Reported ROI
John Deere has not credited any revenue, cost or headcount figure to AI. The returns it publishes for See & Spray, such as 50% to 60% herbicide savings over two seasons (May 2026), go to farmers, and Deere does not report its own revenue from See & Spray licenses. In Dec 2025 Josh Jepsen said Deere's goal of 10% of revenue from recurring sources such as technology licenses will be reached later than 2030, citing a softer farm market, the time needed to build the infrastructure and slower adoption of more disruptive solutions.
Headcount
John Deere had about 73,100 employees on Nov 2, 2025, about 32,500 of them full-time production employees and 27,000 in the U.S. Deere's forward-looking statements list the impact of workforce reductions on culture and retention as a risk, but Deere has not tied any job changes to AI. John Deere wrote in Jul 2026 that its factory automation focuses on supporting people in repetitive or physically demanding work rather than replacing them, and Jahmy Hindman said the aim is to free people for higher-value work.
Governance and risk
Board oversight
John Deere's Audit Review Committee oversees the enterprise risk program, including cybersecurity and artificial intelligence risks, and shares oversight of those risks with the full Board, according to the proxy statement filed Jan 14, 2026. Deere's director skills matrix counts technology and innovation experience, including AI, among the qualifications it seeks.
Digital risk and security
John Deere's Digital Risk Governance Council, a cross-functional group of senior executives, oversees how the company manages digital risk, including the Cybersecurity Team. Deere's CISO, who has been with the company more than ten years, reports directly to the Chief Information Officer and briefs the Audit Review Committee quarterly, and Deere benchmarks its program against the NIST Cybersecurity Framework (FY2025 10-K).
Farm data and model training
John Deere published a Farmer Data Commitment of ten principles alongside JD on Sep 1, 2026: farmers control their data, Deere does not sell it or use it for commodity trading, and farmers choose which third parties receive it. Deere told DTN that data in JD will not be used to train JD or any other AI system, while the commitment says Deere uses farm data and aggregated, anonymized data to improve machine performance, and the FY2025 10-K says customer data helps develop machine learning, large language models and SaaS products.
Disclosed AI risks
John Deere's FY2025 10-K warns that confidential information shared with a third-party generative AI platform could leak or be used to train that party's model, that biased or inaccurate AI output could harm Deere's brand and bring legal claims, and that AI regulation could limit automation and autonomy. Deere also lists compliance requirements for data privacy and artificial intelligence among its competitive challenges.
Farmers decide
Jahmy Hindman said at the JD launch that farmers must always be the final decision makers, and the first versions of JD analyze data but cannot make decisions or act in the cab (DTN, Sep 2026). Hindman told The Robot Report that John Deere tests its AI itself and also uses independent third parties, such as Iowa State University, to judge its value.
Recent signals
Oct 1, 2026
Mobility Engineering Technology reported that JD runs in the Operations Center web and mobile apps and the Equipment Mobile app and will come to the G5 cab display, and that Ask AI, which searches operator manuals and help documentation, is the most popular feature in PRO Service.
Sep 17, 2026
A John Deere Latin America executive told The AgriBiz that Deere plans to launch JD in Latin America by the end of 2026, and that about 100,000 Deere machines in Brazil are connected to Operations Center.
Sep 1, 2026
John Deere introduced JD, the AI assistant in Operations Center, in a limited early access program for selected U.S. farmers, with plans to extend it to turf, construction, road building and forestry, and published its Farmer Data Commitment.
Sep 1, 2026
John Deere declined to name the frontier model behind JD, and Melissa Neuendorf said Deere keeps the right to swap the underlying engine; JD is free to Operations Center users.
Aug 26, 2026
John Deere committed $10 million over three years to Reservoir, an agtech incubator, to speed the development and commercialization of rugged physical AI for specialty crops, announced at Reservoir's first Ruggedize agricultural AI conference in Salinas, California.
Aug 20, 2026
John Deere reported more than 520 million engaged acres across nearly 1.2 million connected machines and more than 450,000 monthly digital users, said See & Spray is on about a third of North American sprayers on order in the early order program, and said AI-enabled capabilities were coming to Operations Center.
May 21, 2026
John Deere said See & Spray covered 5 million acres in 2025 with 50% to 60% herbicide savings over two seasons and now targets wheat, barley and canola, that it had sold more than 12,500 Starlink-connected JDLink Boost kits, and that monthly digital users neared 440,000.
May 1, 2026
Brent Norwood became John Deere's Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, succeeding acting CFO Ryan Campbell.
Feb 19, 2026
John Deere said harvest settings automation was switched on more than 60% of the time operators harvested in fall 2025, that 99% of combines ordered in the early order program included some level of harvest automation, and that engaged acres reached 500 million.
Jan 22, 2026
John Deere disclosed that CFO Josh Jepsen would resign effective Feb 19, 2026 and named Ryan Campbell acting CFO.
Jan 14, 2026
John Deere's proxy statement said the Audit Review Committee oversees cybersecurity and artificial intelligence risks and shares that oversight with the full Board.
Jan 2026
John Deere showed its X9 combine at CES 2026; a Deere vice president said the machine uses cameras, artificial intelligence and high-speed computing to automate harvest settings and ground speed, and that Deere is still working toward full-season autonomy.
Dec 18, 2025
John Deere's FY2025 10-K said Deere uses generative AI in its business processes and included risk language on confidential data leaking to third-party generative AI platforms.
Dec 8, 2025
John Deere's investor day set goals of 600 million engaged acres and 1 million monthly digital users by 2030, moved its 10% recurring revenue goal beyond 2030, and described large language models as the next layer on Operations Center data.
Dec 4, 2025
John Deere disclosed that Raj Kalathur would retire as President of John Deere Financial and Chief Information Officer effective Jan 31, 2026.
Quick answers
- How does John Deere deploy AI?
- John Deere deploys AI mainly in its machines and its Operations Center data platform, through a central technology stack run by CTO Jahmy Hindman: machine learning drives See & Spray, which covered more than 5 million acres in 2025, harvest automation, and autonomous tillage and orchard spraying. John Deere put JD, a generative AI assistant over farmers' own data, into early access on Sep 1, 2026, on a large language model it declines to name. John Deere has published no employee AI platform, user count or AI-credited return.
- What does John Deere use AI for?
- John Deere's published AI use cases sit mostly in its products: machine learning in See & Spray, harvest automation, autonomous tillage, orchard spraying and mowing, obstacle detection on construction machines, predictive maintenance, and AI assistants in the Operations Center and PRO Service. John Deere has reported no business return credited to AI for any of them; the figures it publishes are customer outcomes, such as 50% to 60% herbicide savings with See & Spray, and adoption measures, such as 5 million See & Spray acres in 2025. Inside the company, Deere's FY2025 10-K says it uses generative AI in business processes and AI-driven analytics in manufacturing, without naming tools or results.
- Who leads AI at John Deere?
- AI at John Deere is led by Jahmy Hindman (Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer). Ownership of AI on the org chart: SVP and CTO Jahmy Hindman, who runs the central technology stack.
- What AI platform does John Deere use?
- John Deere runs AI through a central technology stack it built in-house, from cameras and compute on the machine to the cloud-based John Deere Operations Center, where the JD generative AI assistant entered early access in Sep 2026.
- Which AI models does John Deere use?
- John Deere trains its own machine learning perception models for See & Spray and autonomy, with more than 10 trillion agronomic and machine measurements in its training data (Dec 2025), and runs JD on a frontier large language model it declines to name (Sep 2026).
- How many Deere employees use AI?
- John Deere's AI reaches customers more than staff: nearly 1.2 million connected machines, 520 million engaged acres and more than 450,000 monthly digital users in Aug 2026; Deere has published no employee AI tool or user count.
- How far has AI spread at John Deere?
- John Deere sits at Piloting: machine learning runs in production inside its products, including See & Spray on more than 5 million acres in 2025, harvest automation, autonomous orchard spraying and obstacle detection on construction machines, and SVP and CTO Jahmy Hindman runs one technology stack that serves every division. John Deere falls short of Scaling on the internal tests: its FY2025 10-K says only that it uses generative AI in business processes, it has published no AI platform open to most of its about 73,100 employees, no count of use cases and no AI-credited return, and its first generative AI assistant for customers, JD, was in limited early access in Sep 2026.
Open questions
- Who is John Deere's Chief Information Officer since Raj Kalathur retired on Jan 31, 2026, and who leads John Deere Financial?
- Which company's large language model powers JD, where does JD's inference run, how many farmers use it in early access, and when will JD reach general availability in the U.S., Latin America and the G5 cab display?
- Which cloud providers host the John Deere Operations Center and the data Deere uses to train its machine learning models, and what does Deere run on AWS?
- Which generative AI tools do John Deere's own employees use, in which business processes, and how many of its about 73,100 employees use them?
- How much revenue does John Deere earn from See & Spray licenses and other AI features, and what share of revenue comes from recurring sources today?
- What cost, quality or uptime results have the AI-driven analytics in John Deere's factories and its predictive maintenance tools delivered?
- How many autonomous tractors, autonomy kits and GUSS sprayers operate commercially, and when will autonomous mowing ship?
- How many people work on AI and data science at John Deere, and where do Blue River Technology and the Customer AI Solutions team sit in the organization?
Sources
John Deere
- Leadership and management team (checked Nov 1, 2026)
- Technology and innovation
- See & Spray product page
- Your data and the Farmer Data Commitment
- Digital security
- John Deere introduces JD, the AI assistant (Sep 1, 2026)
- One year later: Operations Center PRO Service (Aug 4, 2026)
- The evolution of robotics at John Deere (Jul 1, 2026)
- Deere reports third quarter net income of $1.379 billion (Aug 20, 2026)
Filings and investor materials
- Deere & Company FY2025 Form 10-K (filed Dec 18, 2025)
- Q3 FY2026 Form 10-Q (filed Aug 27, 2026)
- 2026 proxy statement (filed Jan 14, 2026)
- Form 8-K: Raj Kalathur to retire as President, John Deere Financial, and CIO (Dec 4, 2025)
- Form 8-K: Josh Jepsen resigns as CFO; Ryan Campbell acting CFO (Jan 22, 2026)
- Form 8-K: Brent Norwood elected CFO (May 1, 2026)
- Deere & Company announces key leadership changes, 8-K exhibit (Sep 2, 2025)
- Felecia Pryor joins Deere & Company as Senior Vice President and Chief People Officer (Aug 1, 2022)
- Kellye Walker joins Deere & Company as Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer (Mar 25, 2024)
- John Deere NYSE Investor Day transcript (Dec 8, 2025)
- Q3 FY2026 earnings call transcript, The Motley Fool (Aug 20, 2026)
- Q2 FY2026 earnings call transcript, The Motley Fool (May 21, 2026)
- Q1 FY2026 earnings call transcript, The Motley Fool (Feb 19, 2026)
Partners and acquisitions
- Deere to advance machine learning capabilities in acquisition of Blue River Technology (Sep 6, 2017)
- John Deere collaborates with Microsoft on a dealer business system (Jan 18, 2023)
- AWS case study: John Deere and AWS services
- AgNavigator: John Deere invests $10m in Reservoir (Aug 26, 2026)
- The Robot Report: Deere faces headwinds in Q3 update and announces $10M Reservoir R&D partnership (Aug 28, 2026)
News
- DTN: John Deere launches JD AI assistant (Sep 1, 2026)
- The Robot Report: From spreadsheets to AI, John Deere's new JD Operations Center features (Sep 1, 2026)
- Mobility Engineering Technology: John Deere launches AI assistant (Oct 1, 2026)
- Oklahoma Farm Report: John Deere introduces JD (Sep 1, 2026)
- The AgriBiz: John Deere plans AI agent for Latin American farmers by year-end (Sep 17, 2026)
- DTN: Deere shows value of technology at CES (Jan 9, 2026)
- CIO Dive: Deere CIO Raj Kalathur to retire (Dec 5, 2025)
Data confidence
- Confirmed
- Stated in a primary or reputable public source.
- Estimated
- Derived or approximated from public reporting.
- Unconfirmed
- Reported, but not yet corroborated.
John Deere profile · Enterprise AI diffusion report by Imagine · facts checked against their sources on Nov 1, 2026
