The Hectar agricultural campus, co-founded in 2021 by Xavier Niel (the well-known founder of Free) and Audrey Bourolleau, former agricultural adviser to Emmanuel Macron, is developing an artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistant designed to simplify farmers' daily routines, particularly by lightening their administrative workload. A concrete chatbot application is set to debut on Hectar's pilot farm in September 2025. "Like the industrial and service sectors, agriculture must fully embrace artificial intelligence and turn it into a key driver of competitiveness," says co-founder Xavier Niel.
© Hectar - Sylvain Leurent
Located in Lévis-Saint-Nom (Yvelines), the Hectar campus spans 600 hectares. It comprises a regenerative agriculture pilot farm, a training centre, a start-up accelerator (in partnership with the HEC Paris incubator), an educational centre for youth, and an innovation hub responsible for developing the chatbot.
An open platform featuring a library of themed chatbots
The Hectar agricultural chatbot is being co-developed with AI experts and farmers to ensure it addresses real-world challenges. How will it work? It will function as an open platform, offering a library of themed chatbots. Farmers will then be able to create tailored chatbots with support from the Hectar team. The tool is designed to respond to farms' daily operational issues, with a key feature being the collection and analysis of data directly from field observations. "What's often missing from the agritech projects we've supported is the seamless feedback of field-level insights. This information flow must be effortless and shouldn't require extra time from our staff or the experts working on our farms," explains Audrey Bourolleau, co-founder of Hectar.
Development is already underway for AI chatbots dedicated to routine on-farm observations, with initial trials showing promising results. A major goal is to harness field observations, especially audio data recorded by employees and specialists such as agronomists and veterinarians. This approach acknowledges the deeply oral nature of agricultural knowledge. "A farm is more than a plot of land—it's also an intellectual resource that, until now, has rarely been formalised," Bourolleau adds. 
© Hectar - Sylvain Leurent
Helping farmers save time and reduce cognitive load
In practical terms, the chatbot will: free up farmers' time by automating repetitive, low-value administrative tasks; support recruitment processes; provide structured insights from daily operations to guide decision-making; and capture knowledge from experts and field observations. Designed with field realities in mind, this AI chatbot aims to deliver concrete, day-to-day value. "Farmers spend around nine hours a week on paperwork. We want to demonstrate that AI can make a real difference—saving time on repetitive chores and easing the mental burden," says Audrey Bourolleau.
