As global challenges of population growth, climate change, and resource scarcity intensify, the agricultural landscape is at a critical juncture. Sustainable vertical farming emerges as a transformative solution to address these challenges by maximizing crop yields in controlled environments. This paradigm shift necessitates the integration of cutting-edge technologies, with Artificial Intelligence (AI) at the forefront. The paper provides a comprehensive exploration of the role of AI in sustainable vertical farming, investigating its potential, challenges, and opportunities. The review synthesizes the current state of AI applications, encompassing machine learning, computer vision, the Internet of Things (IoT), and robotics, in optimizing resource usage, automating tasks, and enhancing decision-making. It identifies gaps in research, emphasizing the need for optimized AI models, interdisciplinary collaboration, and the development of explainable AI in agriculture. The implications extend beyond efficiency gains, considering economic viability, reduced environmental impact, and increased food security. The paper concludes by offering insights for stakeholders and suggesting avenues for future research, aiming to guide the integration of AI technologies in sustainable vertical farming for a resilient and sustainable future in agriculture.

Farmers and tech companies weigh in. In 2021, AgTech had significant growth. According to Finistere Ventures' 2020 AgriFood Tech Investment Review, developed in collaboration with PitchBook Data, the total global investment in agrifood tech was $22.3 billion, with five billion going to AgTech and $17.3 billion in food tech. The report also finds the market is growing at a 50% compound annual growth rate. In the controlled environment agriculture like indoor vertical farms, analysis from Allied Market Research projected growth investment in 2018 of $2.4 billion to 18 billion by 2026.

Ten years ago, a company called Agrobot demonstrated a strawberry-harvesting robot in a field in Davis, California. Today, Agrobot's strawberry picker remains a prototype. The long wait underscores the challenge for any berry-picking robot: Identify a berry that is ripe enough to pick, grasp it firmly but without damaging the fruit, and pull hard enough to separate it from the plant without harming the plant. Agrobot CEO Juan Bravo said his company's machine can't compete with people who can pick fruit by hand and pack it into clamshells. Still, growers are looking ahead to a day when it will be hard to find people willing to stoop in the fields all day, and expensive to pay them.

An agricultural technology (ag-tech) startup in San Francisco, Plenty, plants its crops vertically indoors, in a year-round operation employing AI and robots that uses 95% less water and 99% less land than conventional farming. Plenty's vertical farm approach can produce the same quantity of fruits and vegetables as a 720-acre flat farm, on only two acres. "Vertical farming exists because we want to grow the world's capacity for fresh fruits and vegetables, and we know it's necessary," stated Nate Storey, cofounder and chief science officer of the startup Plenty, in an account in Intelligent Living. The yield of 400x that of flat farms makes vertical farming "not just an incremental improvement," and the fraction of water use "is also critical in a time of increasing environmental stress and climate uncertainty," Storey stated. "All of these are truly game-changers."

Shared mobility, advanced plastic recycling and protein production are also going to be key to future prosperity. Renault's proposed robotised vehicle for shared urban mobility on show at the 100th Automobile ... [ ] Barcelona trade fair in 2019. The provider of tech-enabled research has produced its "20 for 20" list of "the technologies and trends that will transform the way we live, work, and play over the next decade". "From robotic surgery to self-driving cars, 5G will be critical to advances in the internet of things," Lux says. "5G has officially left the realm of research and entered reality, with more than 2,200 patents being filed this year."

In the hills between Kyoto, Osaka and Nara prefectures, surrounded by technology companies and startups, Spread Co. is preparing to open the world's largest automated leaf-vegetable factory. It's the company's second vertical farm and could mark a turning point for vertical farming -- keeping the cost low enough to compete with traditional farms on a large scale. For decades, vertical farms that grow produce indoors without soil in stacked racks have been touted as a solution to rising food demand in the world's expanding cities. The problem has always been reproducing the effect of natural rain, soil and sunshine at a cost that makes the crop competitive with traditional agriculture. Spread is among a handful of commercial firms that claim to have cracked that problem using a mix of robotics, technology and scale.

CBS News profiled a New Jersey vertical farm providing baby kale, arugula, spinach and romaine to nearby Newark and NYC groceries. They boast 130% more productivity, 95% less water and no pesticides versus field farms. And they harvest 24 times a year, rain, snow or shine. The pros for vertical farming are obvious: 95% less water, no pesticides, year-around production, local delivery, almost no spoilage, true organic veggies. But there are an equal number of cons: high energy costs, lack of automation and robotics to reduce costs, high initial facility cost, steep up-front facility and fixtures cost with consequent premium selling prices limiting the number of buyers willing to pay that premium.

Uber launches self-driving cars in a trial in Pittsburgh this week. I was in an Uber returning from the airport when this was reported on the BBC by EV subscriber, Rory Cellan Jones. My Uber driver heard the headline and leant forward to increase the volume, ears pricking up. This is the sharp end of automation. Even if you hold the reasonable belief that work isn't going to go anywhere soon, and that we'll continuously reinvent things for humans to do, the question is not about the statistics in aggregate.