Agriculture across South Asia faces interconnected challenges involving food security, climate change, natural-resource management, productivity, post-harvest loss, and transboundary plant and animal diseases. Responding effectively requires collaboration among researchers, policymakers, extension professionals, and institutions across the region.

With these priorities in view, the SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC) hosted an interactive seminar titled “AI for Business: Exploring AI Everyday” at its office in Dhaka. The session was facilitated by NetCom Learning Bangladesh.

Established as a regional centre of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation, SAC supports agricultural research and development, policy planning, technology dissemination, capacity building, and knowledge management. Its work connects stakeholders across SAARC’s eight member countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

The seminar explored how artificial intelligence could support SAC’s everyday operational and knowledge-intensive responsibilities. Rather than discussing AI only as an emerging concept, the facilitators connected it with practical workflows relevant to research, communication, documentation, information management, and regional collaboration.

MD Imdadul Islam, Head of Training & Solutions at NetCom Learning Bangladesh and an AI CERTs® Certified Trainer, led the session alongside Fahmidul Alam, Mentor at NetCom Learning Bangladesh and an AI CERTs® Certified Trainer.

Participants considered how AI-assisted tools could help organize research materials, summarize approved documents, retrieve information, prepare initial reports, compare datasets, and communicate technical knowledge more efficiently. Such applications may help professionals work with large volumes of agricultural information while preserving expert review.

The discussion also examined the potential role of predictive analytics in studying agricultural patterns. With suitable data and scientific validation, analytical models may assist researchers in exploring crop productivity, weather-related risks, disease patterns, resource use, and other regional concerns.

However, an AI-generated prediction is not automatically an agricultural recommendation. Differences in climate, soil, crops, livestock systems, farming practices, and data quality across member countries require local validation and the involvement of qualified agricultural specialists before any decision is made.

Knowledge management was another important area of discussion. SAC produces and shares journals, policy briefs, reports, technical publications, databases, and other resources. AI-assisted classification, summarization, and information retrieval could make these materials easier to navigate when implemented through secure and properly governed systems.

The session emphasized that meaningful AI adoption begins with a clearly defined institutional requirement. Before selecting a tool, organizations should identify the problem, assess the available data, establish accountability, and determine how the usefulness and accuracy of an AI-assisted process will be measured.

Data governance remains particularly important in regional research. Unpublished findings, partner information, policy documents, sensitive agricultural data, and internal records should only be processed through approved systems with appropriate access controls and human oversight.

The seminar created a valuable space for exploring how responsible AI adoption could complement SAC’s work in agricultural research, policy support, technology dissemination, and regional knowledge exchange. Building these capabilities gradually can help professionals evaluate where AI offers genuine value and where established expert-led methods remain essential.

We appreciate the SAARC Agriculture Centre for hosting the seminar and engaging in a thoughtful discussion about AI in regional agriculture. We also recognize Jafar Imam Sajal, Business Development Executive at NetCom Learning Bangladesh, for coordinating the engagement.

Here are a few glimpses from the AI for Business: Exploring AI Everyday seminar at the SAARC Agriculture Centre in Dhaka.