Vonnie Estes is vice president of innovation at the International Fresh Produce Association and the host of the Fresh Takes on Tech podcast. The latest eight-episode season focuses on AI’s role in reshaping the global food system in a series of conversations with scientists, investors, and agtech leaders. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of AgFunderNews. Every year at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), agriculture shows up alongside autonomous vehicles and AI. And every year the same question comes up: Is this finally the year robots replace farm labor? After moderating a panel on robotics and autonomy, the answer is still no. And that is exactly why robotics in the produce industry are finally starting to work. What came through clearly in the discussion at CES is that the most successful robots are not trying to replace people; they are fixing the parts of produce operations that break most easily. Produce is unforgiving. Harvest windows are short, quality drops fast. When labor does not show up on time, fruit stays in the field and value disappears. That reality shaped much of the CES panel discussion. Robotics that gain traction in produce tend to focus on timing and flow rather than full automation of complex biological tasks. Selective automation beats universal robots One of the strongest themes from the panel was that movement matters more than manipulation. Harvest-assist platforms, autonomous carts in berries, and rolling systems in greenhouses do not replace workers. They remove walking,…
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