Bayer Crop Science blends gen AI and data science for innovative edge

“The R&D pipeline is pretty highly confidential at this point,” he says. But suffice to say, advanced generative AI could potentially one day lead to the creation of hybrid seeds or new seeds that could alter and add to the food supply chain. “The core of our company’s mission is feeding the world,” McQueen says.

Bayer Crop Science’s existing data science platform, built on a licensed platform dubbed Domino about 7 years ago, is running out of steam and needs to be replaced for the modern AI era, McQueen says. Plans for the first major release of Decision Science Ecosystem are within the next couple of months.

Like most enterprises, Bayer’s agricultural division will initially use AWS-based generative AI tools out-of-the-box to automate basic business processes, such as the production of internal technical documentation, McQueen says. The core set of engineers building the platform have harnessed this feature to speed up the process. Making that available across the division will spur more robust experimentation and innovation, he notes.