Most conversations about AI in agriculture lead nowhere. There is plenty of speculation, plenty of marketing, and very little shared understanding of how AI is actually being used inside real vineyard operations.  There is no manual. No proven tools, and even fewer examples that go beyond theory. That is what makes this story different. Rather than discussing what AI could do someday, this article looks at what happened when a professional vineyard management team, operating at scale and under real economic pressure, put AI to work on the unglamorous parts of their operation: scheduling, coordination, and administrative complexity. The outcome was not what most people would expect. The biggest gains did not come from automation itself, but from what changed once friction was removed from daily work. First, You Have to Start With a Real Problem A vineyard operations leader managing large-scale acreage described a situation many vineyard operators recognize immediately: an operatio

It’s not hard to see the promise of AI on a vineyard: process a ton of information and get meaningful answers quickly. The problem is that no one knows how to get started. There are no clear standards, few proven playbooks, and almost no shared examples of AI delivering measurable results inside real vineyard operations.  How can you use AI on your vineyard? Keep reading... This article looks at how one vineyard management team approached AI not as a trend to adopt, but as a constraint to manage. They had too much information, too many variables and far too little human capacity to process them all. This is how they did it. The Question You Should Be Asking First A vineyard operations leader managing large-scale acreage described a situation where scale magnifies every inefficiency. Across thousands of acres and dozens of properties, the team was already using sensors, labor tracking systems, equipment data, compliance tools, and agronomic models. The problem was not lack of infor

Ontario growers gain local access to affordable, retrofit irrigation automation backed by more than 70 years of irrigation expertise. Verdi, the leading global provider of easy and affordable irrigation automation, today announced a new partnership with Vanden Bussche Irrigation, Ontario’s leading provider of irrigation solutions. Verdi currently supports more than 20,000 acres across North America, works with some of the world’s largest food producers, and helped farms save over 1 billion liters of water last year. Through this partnership, Ontario growers will now have local access to Verdi’s automation platform, delivered with design, installation, and ongoing support from the Vanden Bussche team. For growers managing labor constraints, rising water costs, and increasing pressure to protect yield and quality, the partnership brings together Verdi’s retrofit automation platform and Vanden Bussche’s long-standing irrigation expertise. Expanding Access

Vineyard irrigation has a familiar frustration. You can do everything right and still end the day wondering whether each set actually ran the way you intended. A stuck valve, a pressure issue, a line break, or a simple timing miss can quietly turn into wasted water, uneven blocks, and unnecessary stress. In many vineyards, the only reliable way to catch those problems is still the old way. Drive out, walk the line, and check. At a time when the wine industry is navigating declining demand and tightening margins, lowering operational costs matters more than ever. Growers are looking for ways to cut labor, reduce water waste, and get more certainty from every dollar invested in the vineyard because the broader wine market continues to face headwinds. Global wine consumption has seen persistent downward pressure in recent years, and many regions are adjusting acreage and operations in response to weaker demand. Visit Verdi at Unified Verdi will be exhibiting at the 2026 Unified Wine &

Declining groundwater levels and increasing pressure under the Sustainable Groundwater Management Act are changing how California wine growers think about water. What was once largely an operational concern is now directly tied to long-term viability, regulatory compliance, and sustainability planning. These issues were front and center during a session at the 2025 WIN Expo, where vineyard operators, hydrologists, and county leaders discussed how groundwater management is evolving and what growers can do to stay ahead. Moderated by Val King, Director of Channel Partnerships at Verdi, the session underscored a clear reality. There is no single solution, but there is a shift toward local control, better data, and practical changes in vineyard management. SGMA Was Built to Be Local, Not One-Size-Fits-All Your browser does not support HTML5 video. SGMA is often misunderstood as a rigid, top-down mandate. In reality, it was designed around California’s variability in geology, climate

Until now, getting reliable weather and soil data meant installing and maintaining a physical weather station, or relying on generic, imprecise forecasts. Verdi Weather changes that. This new feature gives you hyper-local weather data, right inside your Verdi dashboard. Powered by Precip, it puts actionable insights exactly where growers make irrigation decisions. Why We Built It Every week, growers make irrigation decisions that directly affect yield, quality, and costs. But too often, those decisions rely on assumptions, not field-specific data. “Knowing how much rain fell yesterday, last week, or across the whole season changes everything,” says Nart Barileva, Verdi’s Head of Data. “Precip’s data fills that gap instantly.”With Verdi Weather, there’s no hardware to buy or maintain. It’s already embedded in your dashboard, and the data is specific to your farm. What You Can See When you open the Verdi Dashboard, click the new Weather bu

Adding automated irrigation to the farm can seem overwhelming. When tasks have always been completed manually (or previous attempts at automation have failed), bringing automation to the table will be uncomfortable and might even feel scary.  Yet, you know that with the increasing costs of labor and other resources, there is a need to do things differently. You want to maximize inputs to achieve the greatest level of efficiency and improve plant health to increase yields.  Automated irrigation can be your ally in doing more with less and advancements in technology have made implementation and day-to-day use easier, more affordable and more robust than ever.    When automation is introduced in a staged approach that works with existing systems, it allows for acceptance, adoption and appreciation before moving on to the next steps. At Verdi, we help growers consider where they are today to determine the stage of automation that makes sense for their operation. Stage

Verdi’s Block Controller retrofits onto existing infrastructure with no trenching or rewiring required. Vancouver, Canada – Verdi, the company making irrigation automation accessible to every farm, today announced it has raised $6.5 million CAD ($4.7 million USD) in its latest oversubscribed seed round, bringing total funding to $9.5 million. The round was led by SVG Ventures, with participation from NEC, Ponderosa Ventures (a member of Galvanize Climate Solutions’ platform), Elemental Impact, GenomeBC, One Small Planet, Waterpoint Lane, Dangerous Ventures, VentureUs, Echo River Capital, Cyan Ventures, Jetstream, and Baker Hall Capital. The funding follows a breakout year for Verdi, which now powers irrigation automation for some of the world’s largest food and beverage brands on more than 5,000 acres of farmland in North America. Agriculture producers have been drawn to its ability to retrofit to existing infrastructure and deliver immediate results.

Building Upon a Strong Foundation  The Verdi Block Controller is our most popular product for a reason: it makes it easy and affordable for any grower to access labor-saving irrigation automation technology and start getting results in just one day. The Verdi Block Controller is a wireless, battery-powered device that brings remote control and monitoring to agricultural irrigation valves and pumps. Paired with the Verdi Dashboard and wireless soil moisture probes, it unlocks powerful features like irrigation flow verification, text alerts, sensor automation, and set-based scheduling — everything designed to help growers save labor and improve productivity. Introducing the Next Generation This major update builds on four years of in-field reliability and grower partnerships with upgrades to make the Block Controller even more dependable, easy to use, and capable: Gain complete visibility into your equipment: Confirms your solenoid actually fired and your wire isn’t seve

Learn expert backed strategies and witness a virtual demonstration of HotSpot's innovative technology! In case you missed it, you're still able to be part of the conversation about smarter, efficient, and sustainable practices to protect your vineyards. For more information on efficient irrigation solutions and to connect with our team, visit us at hotspotag.com. Making the Most of Limited Water Supply Precision Ag in Action – Automating Irrigation & Fertigation for Sustainability and Profitability