Bridging the Coordination Gap: Action Research on AI-Integrated Architectures for Sustainable Regional Agri-Food Transitions

Global agrifood systems are undergoing a profound structural transformation toward greener, more inclusive, and innovative models. In regions where food production is a central economic specialization, failing to navigate this transition risks undermining both food security and regional resilience. While European strategies and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) prioritize Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS) to optimize knowledge circulation among researchers, farmers, and institutions, many regional AKIS still struggle with coordination failures and actor heterogeneity. This paper presents findings from an action-research and design-oriented project addressing these systemic gaps. The study: (1) analyzes regional perspectives on innovation within modern AKIS frameworks; (2) identifies how AKIS actors frame emerging digital technologies; and (3) proposes a novel social and digital architecture. This architecture integrates Artificial Intelligence (AI) and leverages communities of practice to catalyze innovation and overcome institutional path dependencies. The research contributes to the debate on "sustainable intensification" by examining how technology can be democratized and disseminated, productively, among audiences (e.g. small farmers) who have been recalcitrant. We argue that effective AKIS require architectures that acknowledge regional peculiarities and foster robust stakeholder commitment. Policy implications for scaling these architectures across European regions are discussed, focusing on reducing social disparities and enhancing the adaptive capacity of regional agrifood systems. Through its “design” oriented posture (Romme, Mejier, 2020), the study provides a blueprint for more resilient and equitable agrifood trajectories in a changing world.