ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Agricultural and Food Economics
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1621832
Breaking through the bottleneck in the promotion of artificial intelligence in agriculture: an analysis of the moderating role of individual's heterogeneity among farmers in Shandong Province
Provisionally accepted
- 1Qinghai University, Xining, China
- 2Xia men University, Xiamen, China
- 3Institute of Urban Agriculture, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Chengdu, China
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The application of agricultural artificial intelligence (AI) is of great significance for improving agricultural productivity, reducing labor demand, and mitigating agricultural pollution, serving as a crucial path for achieving sustainable agricultural development. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), this study constructs an extended model and employs a combination of questionnaire surveys and Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) for research. The aim is to deeply analyze the utilization of agricultural AI in Shandong Province and the factors influencing its usage intention. The research results show that performance expectancy, effort expectancy, government support, and social influence are the key factors affecting the usage intention of agricultural AI. Additionally, the age, educational background, and work experience play important roles in the moderation model. This indicates that there are significant differences in the acceptance and usage intention of agricultural AI among groups with different ages, educational levels, and work experiences. The findings of this study provide actionable insights for policymakers and technology developers. Policymakers can formulate targeted promotion policies according to the characteristics of different groups, while technology developers can optimize agricultural AI technologies based on user needs. By customizing promotion strategies, it is expected to accelerate the transformation of agriculture towards intelligence and promote the achievement of sustainable agricultural development goals.
Keywords: Agricultural artificial intelligence, usage intention, Adoption, Moderating effect, Least
Received: 28 May 2025; Accepted: 21 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cao, Wang and Kong. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kai Cao, Qinghai University, Xining, China
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