Walton Institute at South East Technological University (SETU) has secured €100,000 in Enterprise Ireland Proof of Concept funding to develop AgritatorAI, a next-generation artificial intelligence agricultural and land image analysis platform.

The platform is designed to speed up important business decisions and workflows using advanced machine learning with transparency built in from the beginning.

AgritatorAI’s initial development aims to automate Common Agriculture Policy (CAP) compliance verification.

CAP payments depend on photographic evidence to confirm crop type, farming activity and environmental compliance.

With more than 6.2 million beneficiaries across Europe, paying agencies receive an overwhelming volume of farm imagery each year. Processing remains largely manual and unsustainable.

CAP compliance

AgritatorAI aims to address this by developing a production-grade AI engine capable of identifying crops, detecting land activity such as grazing, and assessing compliance features within land parcels.

Unlike earlier pilots that struggled to maintain accuracy outside controlled training environments, it's understood that this platform is being built specifically for real-world regulatory use.

The project is led by Christine O’Meara, commercialisation researcher at SETU’s Walton Institute, and builds on the SETU's role in the Horizon Europe NIVA4CAP programme.

That programme delivered the widely used AgriSnap geo-tagged photo app in collaboration with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), Teagasc and farmers.

“The potential of AI to process vast and complex agricultural data is undeniable. However, if AI is to support real payment decisions, accuracy and transparency are non-negotiable,” Christine O’Meara said.

"This project is about building AI that can be trusted in high-stakes regulatory environments.”

Senior commercialisation specialist at Enterprise Ireland, Nakul Wali added: “AgritatorAI shows how commercialising research can potentially turn Irish AI into export-ready Ag-tech, cutting CAP red tape for six million EU farmers and positioning Ireland to lead the next wave of compliance-tech spin-outs.”

Meanwhile, Richard Rodgers, CEO of Voxgig and commercial partner on the project added: "This solution shows that the intersection of machine learning, regulation and market opportunity can be bridged to create a new generation of opportunities that can responsibly meet both economic and social needs."

By reducing manual workloads and improving verification accuracy, AgritatorAI is expected to enable faster claim resolution, stronger environmental monitoring and greater consistency across CAP controls.