Roman Ulyanov walked the conference’s AI panel through the weekly dashboard his management team uses to match what Greeneration’s farms will harvest with what 350+ hotel and restaurant kitchens will order.
Greeneration, the Dubai vertical farm that grows edible flowers and microgreens for fine dining outlets in luxury hotels like Jumeirah, Four Seasons and Atlantis, forecasts its harvests and its clients’ orders with AI models, founder and CEO Roman Ulyanov told the AgriNext Awards & Conference Dubai 2026 on 21 October.
AgriNext Awards & Conference Dubai 2026, organised by Next Business Media and chaired by Anas Jawed, ran more than 20 sessions on climate-resilient farming, AI, biotech, the circular economy and investment in food security, closing with the AgriNext Awards.
Ulyanov spoke on the panel “AI in Agriculture: Transforming Farming Through Smart Decisions and Predictive Analytics” at Crowne Plaza Dubai – Deira, alongside Lee Ismail, Abdul Raouf Mahmoudi and Adel Al Awadhi, with Amit Grover moderating.
The models combine harvest records, climate logs and order history from Greeneration’s 350 hotel and restaurant accounts to predict yield for each crop and demand from each client. The results feed a dashboard the management team works from every week.
“On Monday morning the team can just open one screen instead of a dozen and clearly see what every growing room will yield, what every client is likely to order, and where those two numbers don’t match,” said Ulyanov. “If a room will give us more than our clients will take, we offer the extra to other kitchens before it’s cut. If a variety keeps coming up short on orders, we stop growing it. Before the AI revolution, it used to take us three people and a week of spreadsheets.”
Microgreens go from seed to harvest in 1 to 3 weeks and edible flowers take longer, so every sowing decision commits the farm to orders weeks ahead. The AI models adjust for Dubai’s calendar of tourist season, Ramadan and major events. “If we sow for orders that never come, that tray goes in the bin, and we’ve already paid for the light and the labour, so we need ways to avoid it and models that can predict instances like this come in very handy.”
Ulyanov also set out where he sees AI taking agriculture and indoor farming over the next few years.
The next step, in his view, is software that drafts decisions as well as displaying data. Agricultural AI is moving toward agents that weigh weather, crop, equipment and market data together and recommend a specific action. “Today a dashboard shows my team what is happening. Within 2-3 years the software will draft the sowing plan, the seed orders and the delivery schedule, and a grower will approve or change them. The person’s job moves from building the plan to checking it.”
Another shift he described sits with the buyer. “Hotel groups are bringing AI into procurement. When a kitchen’s system starts placing orders by itself, it will favour suppliers whose harvest forecasts it can read. A farm’s data is becoming part of what it sells.”
About Greeneration
Greeneration is a chain of high-end vertical farms based in Dubai, specializing in premium produce including edible flowers, specialty leaves, and microgreens specifically tailored for the fine dining and HoReCa sectors across the UAE. Founded by Roman Ulyanov, Greeneration addresses a critical need in the region by offering hyper-local, sustainably grown produce that reaches chefs on the same day it is harvested. Through advanced controlled-environment farming, hydroponics, and a soil-free approach, Greeneration delivers fresh, hygienic, and ready-to-use ingredients that elevate quality and innovation in the UAE’s rapidly growing tourism and gastronomy sectors.
More than just a supplier, Greeneration is a partner to chefs, offering customized solutions and unique crop varieties to align with their culinary visions. Greeneration is deeply committed to sustainable practices, conserving water through hydroponics, reducing carbon emissions with local production, and promoting food security for a resilient, eco-conscious future.
For more information, please visit: https://greeneration.ae/
