Machine learning technology is set to reduce herbicide use by up to 80 per cent, according to John Deere's Australia and New Zealand managing director Luke Chandler. Mr Chandler said this would be achieved by moving from a whole-of-field approach to a plant-by-plant management strategy. He said global agriculture was at an inflection point and technological developments would help drive productivity. Farmers across the world have been chasing economies of scale and the company's focus had been on building bigger, faster and stronger machinery to meet that growth, he said. "That's still important but as we shift towards this next frontier of agriculture, we really see machinery being driven by automation, easier to use, more precise types of technologies."