Microsoft’s Project Gecko: Empowering Underserved Farmers with Generative AI

Microsoft Introduces Project Gecko to Address AI Gaps in Farming

Microsoft has officially launched Project Gecko, a groundbreaking initiative designed to create cost-effective and localized generative AI solutions for communities often overlooked by current AI models. The first focus of the project is on smallholder farmers in countries like Kenya and India, where technological advancements have historically struggled to meet the unique linguistic and cultural needs of these regions. Through collaborations with Microsoft Research labs around the globe and agri-tech organizations such as Digital Green, the project aims to dismantle existing barriers to AI adoption. It prioritizes accessibility to underserved users, thus helping bridge the digital divide with innovative localized systems.

At the core of Project Gecko lies the MultiModal Critical Thinking Agent (MMCTAgent), a state-of-the-art system proficient in processing speech, video, and images to deliver highly contextualized and useful responses. The MMCTAgent is not just about understanding and answering queries—it takes things a step further by verifying outputs, breaking down complex questions into manageable parts, and anchoring its answers in culturally relevant, community-generated content such as instructional videos and transcripts. This unique approach ensures that the AI doesn’t merely provide generic solutions but delivers actionable advice rooted in local practices. Additionally, the system has already been made available on Azure AI Foundry Labs, and its code has been open-sourced via GitHub.

Agriculture as the Initial Focus

The agricultural sector was chosen as the initial application area for Project Gecko due to its immense economic importance in regions like Kenya and India, where millions of smallholder farmers contribute significantly to local economies. These farmers typically operate on plots smaller than five acres and rely on oral guidance and practical demonstrations to manage their farms—factors that existing AI systems struggle to address effectively. By leveraging Digital Green’s FarmerChat platform, which features a database of over 10,000 videos in more than 40 languages, Project Gecko delivers tailored solutions for local farmers. For instance, a farmer in Nyeri County, Kenya, can ask a question in Kikuyu and receive customized audio, text, or video responses, including precise timestamps to relevant training content.

Conventional AI models often fall short in these scenarios because they are predominantly trained on English-language datasets and fail to capture the nuances of local dialects, agronomic terms, and farming practices. However, Microsoft’s novel approach emphasizes inclusivity by tackling these challenges head-on. Field studies in Kenya and India reveal that Project Gecko outperforms generic AI systems in terms of accuracy, usability, and trust, effectively enhancing the overall AI experience for smallholder farmers.

Pioneering Speech and Language Technology for Local Needs

One of the project’s most innovative aspects is its work in creating speech recognition infrastructure for underserved languages. By collecting and crowdsourcing approximately 3,000 hours of Kenyan speech data, the team has expanded Project Gecko’s support to numerous regional languages, including Swahili, Kikuyu, Kalenjin, Dholuo, Maa, and Somali. Furthermore, the development of small language models (SLMs) ensures that the system functions seamlessly on the low-cost devices typically used in rural areas. Microsoft is also preparing to launch a public leaderboard to benchmark the performance of African languages, fostering competition and improvements in this unique field of AI.

As Project Gecko matures, Microsoft plans to expand its applications beyond agriculture into vital sectors such as healthcare, education, and retail. The team is also set to publish a multilingual playbook for developers, offering a roadmap for building inclusive AI systems across multiple domains. While challenges like limited internet connectivity and sparse datasets for certain languages remain significant hurdles, the project represents a major step forward in narrowing the global digital divide. By prioritizing underserved communities and placing an emphasis on inclusivity, Project Gecko has the potential to revolutionize how AI serves the world’s most marginalized populations.