Hybrid AI in synthetic biology: next era in agriculture

Synthetic biology holds great potential to transform agriculture, yet its progress is constrained by the complexity of multigenomic, multitrait, and multi-environment data. Desirable traits often arise from complex gene networks acting across diverse conditions, making them difficult to predict and optimize manually. In the past decade, artificial intelligence (AI) has supported this process, but its large data needs and poor integration limit its role to pattern recognition rather than explanatory trait design. We argue that hybrid AI can more effectively navigate multiomics complexity to engineer climate-smart, high-yield crops. Already reducing trial and error in crop engineering, guiding gRNA design, and identifying key regulators, hybrid AI has outperformed traditional data-driven approaches, but its full potential requires clear pipelines, curated datasets, and automation platforms.