AI-driven fungicide design: From target identification to field application

Plant pathogenic fungi pose a severe threat to global agriculture, causing substantial yield losses in staple crops and jeopardizing food safety through mycotoxin contamination. Conventional fungicide development is hindered by high costs, lengthy timelines, and the rapid evolution of fungal resistance, which outpaces conventional discovery workflows. Although artificial intelligence (AI) offers transformative potential to address these bottlenecks, its application in plant pathology remains fragmented and lacks integration of agriculture-specific constraints such as field stability, ecological safety, and resistance management. This review introduces the AI-driven fungicide design (AIFD) platform, a comprehensive framework comprising four interdependent components: a plant pathogen-specific data ecosystem, a modular microservice technical architecture, a linear multiphase development workflow, and a specialized resistance prediction workflow. We synthesize key technological advances across the fungicide development pipeline, from target identification and virtual screening to molecular optimization and field validation, with an emphasis on AI methodologies adapted to agrochemical requirements rather than pharmaceutical standards. Despite substantial advances, critical challenges persist, including scarce high-quality training data for understudied pathogens, limited model adaptability across diverse agroecosystems, poor interpretability that hinders stakeholder trust, and accessibility barriers for resource-constrained researchers. Future directions emphasize the integration of real-time field data, explainable AI to facilitate regulatory acceptance, and inclusive design strategies aimed at bridging the laboratory-to-field gap. By aligning computational innovation with agricultural priorities, AIFD platforms can accelerate the discovery of resistance-breaking, environmentally benign fungicides, thus offering a viable pathway toward sustainable crop protection and enhanced global food security.