Think artificial intelligence will not affect your business? A plumber in Florida thought the same thing. Then he learned about an AI that can predict when cattle are getting sick just by looking at their faces.
The Plumber Who Thought He Was Safe
On a recent episode of The Buck Stops Here podcast, host David Maples shared an email from a listener—a plumber in Florida who was convinced that AI would never touch his industry. “Yeah, AI, David, good job,” the plumber wrote. “It is never going to affect me.”
But as the conversation with guest Shekhar Gupta, founder and CEO of MyAnIML, revealed, that assumption could not be more wrong.
When AI Meets Cattle Ranching
Shekhar Gupta has built something remarkable: an AI system that analyzes photographs of cattle faces to predict illness two to three days before even experienced pen riders—whose entire job is spotting sick animals—can detect symptoms.
Why does this matter? In a typical pen of 300-400 cattle, one sick animal can quickly spread disease to the entire herd. Early detection is not just convenient—it is the difference between a $30 treatment and a catastrophic outbreak that affects the food supply.
“A sick cow emits more methane because it is belching more, it is farting more. The longer it remains sick, the more methane it emits. The sooner you can grab that cow and cure it faster, the methane emission goes down.”
— Shekhar Gupta, CEO of MyAnIML
The Unexpected Benefits of AI in Agriculture
What started as a disease detection tool has revealed surprising additional benefits:
- Reduced antibiotic use: By catching illness earlier, ranchers can treat with smaller doses and prevent the overuse that contributes to antibiotic-resistant pathogens
- Lower methane emissions: Healthy cattle produce less greenhouse gas than sick ones
- Improved food safety: Faster intervention means safer meat reaching consumers
- Labor cost reduction: The expensive process of bringing animals back for treatment is minimized
If AI Can Transform Cattle Ranching, It Can Transform Anything
Fifth, sixth, and seventh-generation ranchers initially told Gupta his technology was impossible. These are people whose families have been in the business for over a century—and they had never seen anything like it.
The lesson? No industry is immune. If facial recognition AI can revolutionize an industry as traditional as cattle ranching, it can certainly affect plumbing, accounting, law, medicine, and every other field.
The Real Question Is Not Whether AI Will Affect You
As Gupta advised during the podcast: “Start looking at how this AI, how this technology is going to change your industry because you should be able to disrupt your own industry versus somebody coming in from outside disrupting yours.”
The question is not whether AI will transform your business—it is whether you will be the one driving that transformation or reacting to it.
What You Can Do Today
- Acknowledge the reality: AI will affect your industry within 24-36 months
- Start experimenting: Tools like ChatGPT are free and accessible
- Identify opportunities: Where could image recognition, natural language processing, or predictive analytics improve your operations?
- Look for unlikely applications: The most transformative uses often come from unexpected angles
This article is based on Season 3, Episode 3 of The Buck Stops Here podcast: “So, You Think AI Will Not Affect You” featuring Shekhar Gupta.