Land O’Lakes is working with Microsoft on an artificial intelligence project to drive agricultural innovation.

The collaboration between the companies over the past five years has already led to the creation of one such tool: a digital assistant called "Oz". Microsoft and Land O’Lakes stated that the technology is based on Microsoft's Azure AI Foundry models and that it uses agricultural data from Land O’Lakes to help farmers make informed decisions that aim to optimize operations, maximize yield potential, and mitigate risk. The companies reported that Oz was designed to provide quick, accurate, and mobile-compatible responses to agricultural problems that farmers may face. Land O’Lakes indicated that the assistant is currently in beta phase and that access is expected to be expanded to retail agronomists next year. Developed to streamline access to millions of data points collected by Land O’Lakes over many years, Oz uses this historical information to help address farm-level challenges and make recommendations. "Land O’Lakes has supported American agriculture for over 100 years, and the ...