AI-Powered Agriculture: Plantd’s Next Leap Toward Climate Impact at Scale

Advanced robotics to accelerate propagation, reduce carbon footprint, and scale plant-based materials faster than ever

OXFORD, NC / ACCESS Newswire / July 28, 2025 / Plantd, the advanced production technologies company pioneering carbon-negative building materials from fast-growing grass, is entering a new phase of innovation. The company has begun integrating artificial intelligence and robotics into its agricultural propagation systems-advancing carbon removal and massively increasing operational efficiency, all while rapidly accelerating its path to sustainable profitability.

Plantd has placed an initial order for a next-generation transplanting robot powered by AI and visioning software. The system executes planting operations up to 10 times faster than manual methods, with greater precision and consistency. This shift will allow technicians to focus on more skilled roles, while propagation output scales. Additional automation, including AI-driven tissue culture systems, are slated for deployment in 2026.

“This technology accelerates our ability to grow more plants, more efficiently-while maintaining the quality needed to maximize our climate impact.” said Janel Louise Ohletz, PhD / Director of Agriculture Operations at Plantd.

These automation investments are designed to streamline propagation across transplanting and tissue culture-minimizing contamination risk, reducing training time, and ensuring quality at scale. With more consistent and scalable throughput, Plantd can accelerate planting timelines and put more high-performing grass into the field-amplifying its carbon-capturing impact on a much nearer term.

Equally important, these advancements support Plantd’s financial strategy. By reducing labor costs per plant, increasing output per hour, and improving consistency across operations, automation lays the foundation for long-term profitability and faster gross margin gains.

The transplanting robot is expected to go live in early 2026, aligning with the start of the cropping season. The tissue culture system is slated for integration by Q4 of that year.

Beyond scale and precision, the new systems address persistent challenges in agriculture-from workforce availability to repetitive strain injuries-while maintaining strong plant health standards. Combined, these upgrades are expected to lower the cost per plant and enhance operational resilience.

To support implementation, Plantd is exploring partnerships with local community colleges to train ag-tech technicians, building a future-ready workforce while minimizing onboarding and recruiting costs.

“The precision and speed of these systems will fundamentally change how we scale propagation-cutting costs, reducing risk, and setting us up for sustainable growth.“ said Nathan Silvernail, Co-Founder and CEO of Plantd.

These efforts reflect Plantd’s commitment to reimagining agricultural infrastructure-smart, efficient, and built to deliver environmental and economic impact at scale.

SOURCE: Plantd

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