TECHNOLOGY mini excavators, and the pros who profit from them. In the meantime, here’ s our look at Kioti Connect and Toro’ s Horizon 360 services.
Note: on our print deadline( mostly irrelevant in a digital world but still a thing for part of our distribution), we attended an event put on by Kress, a self-professed technology company. See that story starting on p. 6.
Kioti connected
Kioti Tractors have established a reputation for reliability and good dealer relations in both agricultural and landscaping applications. We attended the company’ s dealer meeting about a year ago and talked with several dealers who appreciated the company’ s focus on solving problems for commercial buyers. Kioti has introduced advanced features in its latest models and is also using technology to improve ownership, use and service communication.
In February this year, the manufacturer introduced Kioti Connect, an app-based system that connects vehicles with both users and Kioti dealers to provide a wide range of information about use patterns, maintenance needs and on-site optimization with artificial intelligence-driven technology.
Daedong, Kioti’ s parent company based in South Korea, launched Daedong Connect in 2022 to help users there.
“ We tried to provide information to customers and dealers to prevent bigger problems; that was the starting point,” said Youngjin Son, Kioti’ s senior V. P. and chief product technology officer.“ Then we tried to develop that idea even further so we can collect a lot of data and then use those data to provide a kind of forecast for the machine. Plus, we can provide data to farmers about how they can spray fertilizer, how
The new Kioti Connect app is meant to help tractors and compact equipment communicate with both owners and dealers. they can use the same land year by year, how they can utilize different crops year by year. For example, this year they grow corn and next year they wonder, is it best to grow corn or change to beans.”
The Connect service provides real-time monitoring of machine health to help owners optimize use patterns. The technology can remind operators about scheduled maintenance tasks, like oil changes or air filter replacements. Soon, Kioti plans to enable smart remote diagnostics that help users identify issues remotely.
Can dealers connect to Connect?
Kioti dealers can monitor customer equipment remotely, helping them improve response times by seeing potential issues early. They can tell their customers, using data from vehicles, that specific services are recommended on specific timelines.“ Dealers can, instead of waiting for a customer to call or come, communicate with the customer,” said Son.“ Hey, from the data I’ m seeing, I recommend you check this.”
Son said this technology can be a sales tool that will be win-win for them and for the customer. But it is really just a way to help improve relationships with customers, he said.“ Some dealers are a little bit hesitant to come onboard with this, but our team is working to train and educate dealers on the power of Connect.”
The Kioti Connect technology works, today, in HX and RX tractors and compact equipment. So while it definitely favors farmers and other ag users, the tech applies to landscapers and commercial users on the build side. And, as technology does, it will trickle down.
We asked Kioti if its Connect technology could be used for mowers or on other vehicles.“ Right now, we are rolling this out for tractors and compact equipment,” said Son.“ And the AI-powered Kioti Connect services can be applied with Kioti’ s tractor-management system equipment or without. No plans for mowers right now.” Son adds that the system is currently free of charge to owners for the first three years.
Who needs this?
“ For those customers like hobby farmers who use their tractors 200 hours per year, when something is wrong, they might say,‘ Okay I can put the tractor inside my garage and fix it when I want to,’” said Son.“ That’ s a hobby and they want to do it. They have a different attitude.”
Son said it is different tor professional customers who run a tractor 2,000 hours per year.“ If their tractors stop running even for a few hours, it can cost a lot so they want to know potential problem areas right away. They really appreciate if we inform them,” he said.“ When we can help them prevent any stoppage then they say,‘ Okay, can you help us?’ It’ s a totally different dynamic between hobby farmers and commercial users.”
In Korea, Daedong ran an AI pilot program with government funding.“ We started with a small group so our own in-house AI could handle it,” said Son. As the company expanded the services commercially throughout the Korean peninsula the data demands became too great
www. OPE-Plus. com April 2025 OPE + 15