John May: I have a farm myself, and I bale hay, and the quality of the bale that I can produce is only as good as my experience set. So, you know, when I think the hay is at a point where it can be harvested, I get in the moco, I cut it, and then I sit in the tractor and I'm baling it. I'm listening for things, I'm looking at the computer, but the end product is going to be only as good as I am.

Nicolai Tangen: Hi everybody. I'm Nicolai Tangen, the CEO of the Norwegian Sovereign Wealth Fund, and today I'm joined by John May, the CEO of John Deere. Now when you think of John Deere, you may think of green tractors, and indeed there is a green tractor standing behind John here on the screen. But the company has become one of the most advanced technology companies in farming: tractors that drive themselves, AI that tells a weed from a crop, and John is the man behind the shift. He spent almost his entire career at Deere, and now he is trying to turn the maker of farm machines into a real technology company. John, warm welcome.

John May: Thank you. It's great to be here, and thanks for including me on your podcast.

Nicolai Tangen: Fantastic. Now, John, you became CEO in 2019, and then very quickly after that, you launched what you call Smart Industrial Strategy. What is that?

John May: Well, really what we wanted to do is get more focused on the customer itself and the jobs that our customer do. You know, in the past, what we would do is focus on building the best planter, and we wanted to shift to helping our customers plant better than they ever had in the past by leveraging technology. So we realigned around production systems, and then really invested heavily in technology that would make our customers more productive, more profitable, and more sustainable.

Nicolai Tangen: And how is it different from how Deere used to run?

John May: You know, in the past we didn't focus on necessarily the biggest challenges that our customer had. So for example, labor availability at certain times of the year, or input costs where they're over-applying fertilizer. By looking at the machine instead of the job, we missed opportunities to solve the real bottlenecks. Realigning around production systems allowed us to connect hardware and software across the entire lifecycle—from tillage and planting to spraying and harvesting.

Nicolai Tangen: Speaking of technology, your See & Spray technology is quite remarkable. How does it actually work out in the field?

John May: See & Spray is a prime example of applying computer vision and machine learning to farming. As a 120-foot boom moves across a field at 15 to 20 miles per hour, 36 cameras along the boom capture images at high frame rates. Onboard AI processors classify every pixel in milliseconds, distinguishing a weed from a crop plant like corn or soybeans. The moment a weed is detected, a nozzle fires precisely on target. It reduces herbicide usage by up to 70 to 80 percent, which delivers huge cost savings to farmers and massive environmental benefits.

Nicolai Tangen: That's an enormous cost reduction and a major win for the environment. Beyond weed management, can this precision spraying approach be applied to fertilizer application?

John May: Absolutely. We applied that exact same principle to starter fertilizer with a technology called ExactShot. Traditionally, farmers apply a continuous stream of liquid fertilizer in the furrow during planting. With ExactShot, sensors detect when a individual seed is dropping, and high-speed valves pulse a precise dose of fertilizer directly onto the seed, pausing in between. That reduces starter fertilizer use by up to 60 percent while still giving the plant everything it needs to emerge and thrive.

Nicolai Tangen: Autonomous driving has been talked about for years in automotive, but you've already delivered fully autonomous tractors to production agriculture. How is autonomous operation in a field different from city streets?

John May: While farm fields don't have pedestrians or traffic lights, the operational environment presents unique challenges: extreme dust, harsh vibration, changing lighting conditions, and unpredictable obstacles like sinkholes, stray animals, or fallen tree limbs. Our fully autonomous 8R tractor uses six pairs of stereo cameras providing a 360-degree field of view with advanced deep neural networks. A farmer simply transports the machine to the field, configures the boundary via the Operations Center app, swipes to start, and can walk away. The machine executes the job, detects obstacles, and alerts the farmer remotely if it encounters something ambiguous.

Nicolai Tangen: How receptive have farmers been to handing over a half-million-dollar piece of heavy machinery entirely to AI control?

John May: The adoption curve has been driven by a massive structural problem: agricultural labor scarcity. Finding skilled operators who are willing to sit in a cab for 16 to 18 hours a day during narrow planting or harvesting windows is nearly impossible in many rural areas. Autonomous equipment doesn't get fatigued, runs around the clock when weather windows open up, and elevates the farmer from a machine operator to a farm fleet manager.

Nicolai Tangen: All of this capability relies heavily on data and compute. How has John Deere built out its connected data ecosystem?

John May: The foundational layer is the John Deere Operations Center. Today, hundreds of millions of engaged acres around the globe are connected to our cloud platform. Every connected machine in the field streams real-time telemetry and agronomic data: soil conditions, seed placement depth, application rates, moisture levels, and yield maps. This creates a powerful flywheel: smarter machines capture higher-fidelity data, which feeds predictive agronomic models, enabling even higher operational efficiency. Farmers own their data and can securely collaborate with agronomists, input suppliers, and retail partners.

Nicolai Tangen: How is the contribution of software and recurring revenue changing your business model? Are you shifting towards a SaaS-style model for equipment?

John May: We are evolving towards a Solutions-as-a-Service model. Traditionally, agricultural machinery was purely an upfront capital expenditure, placing the full financial risk on the producer. By standardizing advanced hardware kits on machines and offering high-end capabilities like See & Spray or autonomous operation through usage-based or annual software licenses, we lower upfront adoption friction. Farmers pay relative to the value and acres treated, while Deere builds a durable, recurring revenue stream.

Nicolai Tangen: When we talk about sustainability and decarbonization, what does the transition look like for heavy farm machinery? Can batteries actually replace diesel in high-horsepower equipment?

John May: We approach powertrain electrification with a nuanced, workload-specific roadmap. For compact utility tractors, turf care, and specialized orchard equipment, pure battery-electric powertrains are viable and economically compelling today. However, for large production agriculture—such as a 600-horsepower tractor pulling heavy tillage tools for 14 continuous hours in high-draft conditions—the current energy density of batteries would add prohibitive weight, causing severe soil compaction. For those heavy-duty applications, we are investing in renewable biofuels, ethanol, e-fuels, hydrogen combustion, and advanced hybrid architectures.

Nicolai Tangen: Global food security is one of the defining challenges of our time. With arable land remaining flat or declining, how does technology bridge the gap to feed a growing global population?

John May: By 2050, the global population will approach 10 billion people, requiring an estimated 50 percent increase in agricultural output. Yet arable land is constrained, fresh water is scarce, and regulatory requirements on chemical inputs are tightening. The only solution is unlocking yield gains through plant-by-plant precision management. Historically, farming treated fields as broad, uniform units. Today's technology enables sensing and action at the individual plant level. By optimizing every single seed's environment while drastically reducing total chemical inputs, we can sustainably meet global demand.

Nicolai Tangen: John, transforming a nearly 190-year-old manufacturing legacy into an AI- and software-driven tech powerhouse must have met internal friction. What was the biggest cultural hurdle?

John May: The greatest challenge was breaking down silos. Historically, Deere was structured around isolated product divisions—combine division, tractor division, seeding division—each optimizing their own hardware roadmap. Our Smart Industrial Strategy required unifying into enterprise-wide technology platforms. We opened engineering hubs in places like San Francisco and Austin to attract top-tier machine learning, computer vision, and cloud engineering talent. The magic happens when you bring brilliant software engineers together with ag engineers who have dirt under their fingernails and deep domain expertise.

Nicolai Tangen: You've spent almost your entire career at Deere, working across different divisions and living in multiple countries. How did that broad trajectory shape your leadership philosophy?

John May: Having opportunities in different business units, functional areas, and living internationally outside the United States was truly transformative for me as a leader. Operating in diverse geographies gives you firsthand visibility into different cultures, customer pain points, and commercial practices. It reinforces my core leadership conviction around genuinely valuing different perspectives. In our leadership team, I want every voice to be heard because each person brings distinct insights and experiences that I simply don't have.

Nicolai Tangen: John, this has been a fantastic conversation. I can assure you that when people see a green tractor from now on, they will view it in a completely new light.

John May: Thank you, Nicolai. I really appreciate the invitation and your time.

Nicolai Tangen: Thank you all for listening. If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, and turn on notifications. It really helps us bring on more great guests.