Agri-Tech's Climate Revolution Is Securing Our Wellness Future
Wellness is more than just a buzzword, it's a movement. The industry was worth about $2 billion in 2025, according to a McKinsey & Company study, and it's expected to continue to grow.
Whole-body wellness relies heavily on agriculture. One cannot thrive unless the other survives, and agriculture is suffering under extreme heat, severe weather events, disease-resistant pests and other climate change issues. Climate resilience and yield stability are now the primary driver of agricultural productivity, not simply output.
The wellness industry and farmers work together to source ingredients for everything from cosmetics to protein powder. Artificial intelligence is changing the way they do so.
"Artificial Intelligence is rapidly transforming agriculture from a traditional labor-intensive industry into a data-driven ecosystem that extends far beyond food crops into wellness, cosmetics, nutraceuticals, medicinal plants, bio-based ingredients, and sustainable supply chains," Dr. Sonia Goel, senior scientist at oloBion, told Newsweek.
The most impactful AI applications are those that directly improve productivity, quality, sustainability and eventually profitability. Precision agriculture, which uses AI to analyze satellite imagery, sensors and weather data to optimize irrigation and fertilization, among other uses, is increasingly popular.
AI tools like Plantix and Prospera can detect plant and pest diseases early, allowing farmers to intervene before serious losses. Machine learning models can also help growers forecast yields and plan harvests.
Ingredients such as mushrooms and other medicinal plants, bioactive compounds, nutraceuticals, adaptogens (think ginseng), plant-based proteins and essential oils are all farmed. But medicinal plants are fragile and susceptible to climate variation and disease. Other ingredients require precise soil health to maximize their bioactive components.
One 2025 review of 219 medicinal plant studies found that climate change is so quickly reshaping the ecology of these plants that a coordinated response is "urgently needed to ensure sustainable production and use."
AI can be immensely helpful in controlling irrigation and fertilization automatically, said Goel, optimizing plant health using data from soil moisture, humidity and light sensors.
Many wellness brands advertise exact concentrations of therapeutic ingredients. Machine learning algorithms can analyze agriculture datasets to predict the phytochemical makeup of crops, helping companies make their claims.
It's not only the consumable side of wellness that's leveraging AI-enabled agriculture. Many cosmetic products rely on plant-derived ingredients. Aloe vera, lavender, calendula, argan, jojoba…the list goes on. Brightseed and NotCo, among others, are using AI to help cosmetic companies move beyond traditional sourcing and toward highly optimized ingredient production systems.
“At NotCo AI, we’ve built the first AI platform purpose-built for the consumer goods industry to help leading companies move faster, formulate smarter, and stay ahead of evolving consumer demands,” Matias Muchnick, CEO and founder of NotCo AI, told Newsweek.
“Our platform, Giuseppe, is trained on over a decade of proprietary ingredient and food science data. It redefines product development by optimizing multiple variables at once: nutrition, functionality, taste, affordability, sustainability, and more,” he explained.
AI can also identify growing conditions that maximize specific compounds linked to skin health, such as antioxidants or anti-aging properties. Skincare companies are even starting to use AI to identify new plant species and compounds that could have cosmetic applications.
"The wellness industry stands to benefit enormously from AI's ability to optimize ingredient quality, improve sustainability, and strengthen supply-chain resilience," Goel said. "For sectors built on natural ingredients and consumer trust, AI represents both a competitive advantage and a pathway toward a more sustainable future."
On June 23, 2026, Newsweek will present its annual London Climate Week event. This year’s Field to Future: The Sustainable Wellness Summit tackles hot-button climate, technology and wellness issues during thoughtful discussions with industry leaders.
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This story was originally published June 13, 2026 at 7:13 AM.