AgAdvisor: AI Finance Assistant
AI Explorative Design Project
Define the Problem:
CoFi provides financial services to farmers seeking to apply for various farm-based loans. Before the beginning of each growing season, farmers can apply for operating based loans that provide the funds needed to support the upcoming growing season. Once approved, farmers can draw down on the funds in order to pay for supplies like seeds and fertilizer.
Before applying for a loan ,farmers need to determine exactly how much resources they will need to operate their farm and balance that with how much they think they will qualify for. To do so, farmers need to evaluate and consider:
The yield produced by their properties
The costs required from past growing seasons
The current market interest rates for loans
Their current financial situation—current loans, assets, liabilities and income (Farm and Non-Farm)
This means pouring over tax documents, receipts, income and payment statements, and much more. CoFi’s AgAdvisor is here to ease the calculating process and provide clear financial recommendations so farmers can more easily determine how much they can risk applying for the upcoming season.
User Contribution:
To be able to evaluate a farmer’s financial situation, farmers will provide details about their operation, everything from:
Current finances: loans, liabilities, assets, incomes.
Known financial needs: growing materials like seeds, fertilizer, water, soil, plant nutrition
Last yield per acreage per crop type
Current acreage and crop type
If a farmer is returning, they’ll be able to update or add to their financial situation with current year standings, building on their farming and financial history that they can easily look back through in order to make better estimates on current and future loan requests.
Determined Product Value:
To the user:
By providing farmers with a better understanding of their financial capabilities, they will be able to apply for operating loans that better suit their operating needs. In doing so, farmers can ensure that they don’t over or under apply, better aware of what risks are present for varying loan amounts and can make better judgements on what amount to apply for while ensuring that they will be approved for the asked amount. Helping farmers make more informed decisions about how much to apply for will ease and speed the application and loan funding process.
To the business:
In turn, banking institutions who use CoFi to receive and process farm loans will receive loan applications that can be more easily and quickly approved as they have already been set to work within the farmer’s financial situation. This minimizes the underwriting process and helps elevate decision-making and risk management, as the risk of late payments or potential bankruptcies on the part of the applicant has already been minimized.
Define the AI’s Contribution:
CoFI’s AgAdvisor will help farmers evaluate their current financial standings and the typical operating costs of their farms alongside current operating interest rates and market crop values. Through the evaluation AgAdvisor will be able to provide tiered operating loan amounts for which a farmer qualifies for along with potential risks and benefits for applying for each tiered amount.
AgAdvisor will be a ChatGPT based generative AI feature that will utilize NLPs in order evaluate inputted values and provide detailed reasons and judgements that will empower users to make wise financial decisions.
Users will initially need to input their financial and production information and AgAdvsior will use this evaluate the current operating needs with:
The farmer’s provided financial data history
The farmer’s SSN (or FEIN if it is a company) and credit score
The FSN history of acreage and past production yields
Evaluations of the performance and cash-to-flow value of similar farms (same crop, same region, same acreage) and their
Adjustments for financial requirements like the amount of materials needed to grow crop
Evaluation of market standings for interest rates within the farm lending market
Evaluation of the Crop Market’s yield rates/value
Evaluation for financial safety and risk predictors
Over time we will be able to evaluate the success of financial feedback given as more users engage with the AgAdvisor and as users return to make payments on current loans and apply for additional loans. From the feedback we can learn:
If farmers prefer to apply for riskier, on point or safer loans
If the suggested financial points work to fulfill the financial needs
Refine the evaluation and possibilities for potential cash flow problems or even bankruptcies
