Perception of Socioeconomic Effect and Constraints of Artificial Intelligence (Agricultural Technology) Performance of Agricultural Extension Agent in Delta State, Nigeria

Artificial intelligence (AI) is taking over the different strata of life and industries, such as agriculture, to higher levels of productivity, efficiency, and decision-making with the use of smart technologies. This study evaluated the perceived socioeconomic impacts and challenges of AI on the productivity of agricultural extension agents in Delta State, Nigeria. The data was collected from 51 respondents through use of stratified random sampling technique and analyzed using descriptive statistics. The findings indicated that the majority of the extension agents saw AI as having both economic benefits and limitations. Perceived economic impacts formed the largest means of 2.89 where the respondents were most concerned with affordability with a mean of 3.14 and the redundancies that are expected to be witnessed with a mean of 2.55. Perceived barriers to AI integration mainly concerned restricted access to the internet (mean = 3.14) and lack of technical skills (mean = 3.12) with a grand mean of 2.86. From the study, it suggested that infrastructure, technical training, and policy intervention should be put in place to support AI usage in agricultural extension services.