AgriGuide: Agriculture AI development

The University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service, part of the College of Agriculture, Food, and Environment (CAFE), plays a critical role in delivering research-based knowledge to farmers, communities, and families across the Commonwealth. Many Kentuckians rely on their local Extension Agents, often through in-person visits or phone calls, to get answers to specific and locally relevant questions. With thousands of people seeking support each year, the Extension Office is under constant pressure to meet growing demand. There is a unique opportunity to apply AI in a way that helps the Extension Office scale its reach while staying grounded in the trusted information it’s known for.

In collaboration with CAFE and the Extension Office, we developed AgriGuide, a new AI-powered assistant designed to help users access reliable, Kentucky-specific agricultural guidance. Built on CAAI’s institutional large language model platform, LLM Factory, AgriGuide uses a method called Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to deliver responses that are both highly relevant and grounded in local, research-based content. Unlike commercially available LLMs that generate responses based solely on pretraining, RAG improves each answer by retrieving semantically relevant, source-grounded content from a vector database built from UK Extension materials.

These vetted documents are embedded using transformer-based models and indexed for fast, contextual retrieval. The AI then uses the retrieved content to generate relevant and well-cited answers. When a user asks a question, the system pulls in those related documents relevant to the query and feeds them into the AI model so the generated response is not only conversational, but also informed directly by UK’s own resources. This process helps the tool stay focused, transparent, and grounded in real data.

By streamlining access to UK’s research-backed materials, AgriGuide reduces barriers to knowledge, increases the reach of extension services, and empowers Kentuckians to make informed decisions based on trusted guidance. As Kentucky continues to embrace AI-driven solutions, this innovative tool is set to become an invaluable resource for those seeking reliable agricultural knowledge.