AI Integration in Omani Smart Farming Ecosystems: A Qualitative TOE-Based Exploration

Abstract

Artificial intelligence (AI) is reshaping modern agriculture through automation, predictive analytics, IoT-based monitoring, and data-driven decisions. In regions with limited water resources, such as Oman, AI-enabled smart farming has the potential to support more efficient water use, improve farming operations, and contribute to long-term food security. In arid environments such as Oman, AI-enabled smart farming offers real opportunities to conserve water, raise operating efficiency, and strengthen food security. Practical AI integration in Omani hydroponic ecosystems remains limited, however, and most existing studies have addressed engineering feasibility rather than the human, organizational, and institutional dimensions that shape readiness. This study examines how AI integration is perceived and pursued in Omani smart farming ecosystems through a qualitative Technology, Organization, and Environment (TOE) lens. Twenty semi-structured interviews were conducted with agricultural engineers, hydroponic farm managers, researchers, technicians, and smart-farming practitioners across the Sultanate. Interview data were analyzed thematically using Braun and Clarke’s six-phase approach, with coding performed in NVivo and mapped a posteriori to the three TOE contexts. The organizational context emerged as the most prominent thematic area in the interview material, with 90 coded references compared with 72 each for the technological and environmental contexts. This frequency is a descriptive indicator of the topics on which participants dwelt most, not a causal measure of importance; its substantive weight is supported by the recurring emphasis on workforce training, leadership vision, and financial capacity across all four stakeholder groups. Environmental pressures such as water scarcity and climate stress acted as strong motivators of intent, while government and university collaboration provided the enabling channel. The paper extends the TOE lens into hydroponic agriculture in a resource-constrained arid context and treats AI integration as a socio-technical transformation rather than a purely technological choice, with implications for Oman Vision 2040.