Land O’Lakes and Microsoft expand alliance with launch of AI assistant “Oz”

Land O’Lakes and Microsoft have entered a new multiyear strategic phase of their partnership, introducing an AI-powered digital assistant designed to give US farmers faster access to agronomic data. The tool, branded “Oz,” is built on models within Azure AI Foundry and draws on Land O’Lakes’ extensive agricultural datasets to support production decisions across the growing season.

The companies, which have collaborated for five years on digital agriculture initiatives, said the expanded alliance aims to ease the operational strain faced by farms amid rising input costs, softening commodity markets and shrinking arable land. Executives from both organizations described the launch as part of a broader effort to bring practical, data-driven decision tools to the farmgate.

According to Land O’Lakes, Oz compiles and interprets information historically contained in the company’s 800-page Crop Protection Guide, an agronomic reference built from two decades of data. The assistant is designed to deliver mobile-ready responses to product and management questions raised by retail agronomists, who serve as primary advisers to growers. The system is currently in beta testing, with wider availability expected next year.

Land O’Lakes said improved access to this information could help retail agronomists recommend tailored solutions that control production costs and protect yield potential. WinField United President Leah Anderson noted that data volume has grown rapidly across agriculture, making targeted, farm-specific guidance increasingly important.

The introduction of Oz comes as Land O’Lakes continues a broader digital transformation undertaken with Microsoft. The cooperative has moved more than two-thirds of its IT environment to Azure and has adopted Microsoft Copilot tools across internal operations. Using Copilot Tuning, the company has customized its enterprise AI assistant to align with agriculture-specific workflows and data requirements.

Land O’Lakes highlighted additional digital agriculture initiatives under its transformation program, including a soil-focused Digital Ag Platform and a Digital Dairy solution that captures and analyzes production data, even in low-connectivity regions. Microsoft’s AI tools support predictive modeling in the dairy supply chain to help align output with demand.

Both companies said Oz is the first in a planned series of new AI-powered solutions intended to support US crop and livestock producers through data access, operational efficiency and improved risk management.