Aon and SAGE to Sell AI-Precision Crop Insurance for 2027

Corn and soybean growers in 15 corn belt states will get a new crop insurance option in the 2027 crop year, priced field by field rather than county by county. Brokerage firm Aon and agricultural risk intelligence company SAGE announced the program, which could cut premiums on low-risk ground that federal policies now price at county averages.

The two companies say the coverage is designed to "complement federal crop insurance by more precisely matching coverage to the value being protected and the underlying risk at the field level," according to a press release. SAGE will act as the "analytical engine that allows Aon to price risk and write policies," said Robert Bonnie, a former USDA under secretary for farm production and conservation and a SAGE co-founder.

Who is behind the program?

SAGE's co-founders are Bonnie and technology executive Bill Veghte. Veghte frames the economics plainly: federal crop insurance prices risk on each county's average, even though every farmer's field differs, so some growers pay premiums that don't match their lands and soils. The new option is pitched as a lower-priced alternative for farmers holding lower-risk ground.

Bonnie said USDA previously explored writing policies on a field-by-field basis but ran into technological and capacity restraints. SAGE claims artificial intelligence removes that barrier. Its models pull together data from farm equipment, USDA records, satellite observation, scientific papers and deterministic process models from universities to run risk assessments at field level.

"Crop insurance is really, really popular, and a lot of growers rely on it," Bonnie said. "At the same time, I think there are a lot of growers also that understand that the price they're paying for USDA isn't entirely reflective of actually what they're doing on the ground." What the announcement does not include is any premium figure, discount percentage or baseline comparison against existing federal rates.

What does soil have to do with the price?

Soil data sits among the factors the system weighs, and backers say that changes what the policy can see. "What's most important here is they're connecting soil into the risk equation," said Travis Stewart, a senior vice president at Aon. "When we then understand soil as the underlying asset, we can understand if there is increasing or diminishing value to that asset."

Bonnie said the approach may help "de-risk" conservation and regenerative practices, and SAGE will also analyze grower data, returning readings, metrics and conservation practice recommendations to farmers. Whether those recommendations carry weight with lenders and insurers beyond this program remains untested.

Where does it launch first?

AgriCap will serve as the preferred insurance partner selling the option in the 2027 crop cycle. Veghte said crop insurance agencies in the corn belt interested in offering the program should contact AgriCap; further details sit on SAGE's website.

Separately, SAGE and Aon join a Michigan pilot developed by the Resilience in Agricultural Lending and Insurance Coalition, backed by the state's agriculture department. It will offer lower premiums to corn and soybean farmers in four counties who use practices such as cover crops and no-till, also starting in 2027.

Tina Owens, founder of RALIC and a specialist in regenerative agriculture systems and investment at the nonprofit Transformational Investing in Food Systems, called the program a "game-changer" and said SAGE's AI engine "has been creating the insights" needed to write soil health into crop insurance. "The next 10 years of the regenerative ag and soil health movement is going to be about how this rewrite of actuarial services and AI data insights completely shifts the way the financial sector gets engaged in this industry," Owens said.

The program's first real test arrives with the 2027 crop year, when corn belt growers can compare its field-level premiums against the federal policies most of them already carry.