Bringing the right expertise to farmers when it matters most

When Paul Vergely visits a grower in southeastern France, where vineyards, fruit orchards and field crops often sit within a few kilometers of one another, the questions are rarely simple.

Can these products be used together? Will this solution fit the conditions in a particular field? What do recent observations suggest about the season ahead?

The answers often exist somewhere within Syngenta's vast stores of agronomic knowledge. The challenge is finding them quickly enough to be useful.

"Syngenta is like a gold mine," says Paul, a Syngenta Sales Representative who has spent the past five years working directly with growers. "There is a huge amount of information available, but it can be difficult to know where to find it."

That dilemma is becoming increasingly familiar across agriculture. Farmers face pressure to produce more food with fewer resources while navigating changing weather patterns, evolving pest pressures, and growing demands for sustainability. As the complexity of farming has increased, so too has the amount of information available to help manage it.

For the people who work closest to growers, finding relevant knowledge at the right moment can be just as important as possessing it.

That is the problem Syngenta is trying to solve through Lynx, an AI-powered platform built in partnership with Salesforce that combines the company's agronomic expertise with Agentforce, Salesforce's digital labor platform.

Agents working together

After meeting a customer, Jerome is expected to document the discussion, share relevant information and ensure insights from the field reaches the wider organization. The process is essential but time-consuming.

A customer report that once required close to an hour can now be completed in less than half that time using Lynx. More importantly, Jerome says, the information is recorded when the details are still fresh. "It also improves quality because nothing is forgotten. Our reports are created while the information is still fresh in our minds, immediately after meeting with a customer."

That may sound like a small operational improvement. Across hundreds of customer interactions, however, those gains accumulate.

Behind Lynx sits Salesforce and Agentforce, which allow different intelligent agents to work together using specialized expertise and data. One agent might draw insights from commercial information. Another may access agronomic recommendations. Together they are designed to help answer questions that once required searches across multiple systems.

"The Salesforce agent can access our sales and commercial data," Bill says. This becomes particularly valuable when combined with Cropwise, Syngenta's digital agriculture platform.

Cropwise can help identify opportunities in a field. Salesforce can help determine the most effective way to communicate those insights to growers. Together they connect agronomic expertise with customer engagement.

"Cropwise points out opportunities for us, and the Salesforce agent helps determine how to deliver them, especially communication with growers," Bill explains.

The result is a partnership that combines different strengths. "Syngenta has the agronomic expertise for farms, and Salesforce brings the ability to reach growers at the right time through the right channels."

For Paul, that future is less about artificial intelligence than about confidence. As agriculture becomes more complex, growers increasingly expect tailored recommendations rather than generic advice. Sales representatives must navigate product portfolios, technical guidance, and local conditions simultaneously.

"Thanks to AI, I can imagine that accessing this information will become much easier," Paul says. "It will be simpler to validate tank mixes between products or check product compatibility."

The outcome, he believes, will be better conversations with customers. "I believe I will be able to work more easily and more quickly with my customers,” Paul says.

For Xilu Chen, Syngenta's Commercial Excellence Lead in France, helping sales teams work more effectively is only the first phase.

The next chapter is about understanding how organizations learn. Xilu's team is exploring ways to connect systems such as Salesforce and Outlook to better understand how teams spend their time, where their attention is focused, and where opportunities may be overlooked. "We want to provide deeper insights to our sales teams and their managers," she says.

The path forward remains a work in progress. "We have many ideas – some of which are only possible thanks to technologies like AI and data analytics,” Xilu says. “We do not yet have all the answers. We’ll test and learn over the coming months."

That willingness to experiment may be the most important lesson from the Lynx story. For all the discussion around AI, the technology itself remains secondary. What matters is whether it helps people make better decisions.

For Syngenta, the measure of success will not be how many prompts are entered into Lynx or how many reports are generated more quickly. “It will be whether a grower receives better advice at a critical moment — and whether the person standing across the field has the knowledge needed to provide it,” Bill says. “This is what makes the partnership with Salesforce strategic.”

By combining AI, agronomic expertise and commercial intelligence, Syngenta hopes to elevate the role of its sales teams from product specialists to trusted advisors. For growers facing increasingly complex decisions to increase their yields, that may prove more valuable than any technology on its own.