Drones World Editor Kartikeya in conversation with Ms. Mariah Scott, CEO at American Autonomy Inc
Kartikeya: What specific operational limitation or cost does American Autonomy, Inc. solve for farmers that closed Chinese systems can’t?
Mariah Scott: When considering buying a drone, farmers should be asking where their data is located, how they can access and use it, and how is it secured. Without data, they are unable to use the data to make better decisions.
Closed Chinese systems have several limitations impacting productivity and efficiency, primarily focused on data sovereignty, portability, transparency, and security.
On many closed Chinese systems, users can’t easily (and sometimes not at all) export or import data from other systems (field boundaries, prescription maps, flight logs, coverage maps). This reduces efficiency, imposes compliance risks, requires more time (which equals money) to do tasks. In many cases, those tasks are impossible. For example, these systems cannot produce a coverage map to verify correct application of crop protection or compare to results from a ground sprayer or crop duster. Many cannot export the data needed to create an FAA or state pesticide compliance report.
The American Autonomy operating platform makes these tasks easy to accomplish. Our software is built in the U.S. by U.S. engineers and is hosted on servers in the U.S. Our focus on user control ensures that farmers can access their data. Our commitment to cybersecurity protects farm data.
Kartikeya: What can a farmer practically do with their data in your open system that’s impossible in closed platforms?
Mariah Scott: Most farmers flying drones today run into the same problem: the data goes in, but it’s tough, or more often impossible, getting it back out in a useful way. If they can get data, it’s all manual.
Farmers must re-enter field boundaries every single time, even for repeat jobs. If they’re lucky, after each flight, they’ve got to land, sync logs to the cloud, download them, and then try to make sense of it all.
Maintenance? Pretty much guesswork.
Because the software ecosystem is so fragmented, farmers must stitch together bits and pieces just to answer basic questions like: Where did I fly? How well did the drone do? Was the application accurate?
Our platform changes that. Farmers own their data—and can use it. Everything’s in one place: pre-flight planning, post-flight analysis, drone and pilot management, maintenance, and warranty tracking.
Here’s what that means in real life:
- Farmers can reuse field boundaries for repeat jobs—no more entering them in every time.
- Farmers can share data easily—boundaries, flight logs, coverage maps, maintenance records—with anyone who needs them.
- See application maps that show exactly where product was applied.
- Integrate the data with their farm management system so they’ve got the full picture for yield analysis.
- They can generate reports for compliance, billing, and maintenance without the headache.
Bottom line: instead of farmer’s data being locked away or buried under manual steps, they can turn it into decisions, insights, and efficiency—all without jumping through hoops.
Kartikeya: Is your primary customer the farmer, the drone operator, or the manufacturer – and what’s your core revenue model?
Mariah Scott: Our primary customer is drone manufacturers. Our software integrates as a full stack (ground control station software (GCS), drone data manager software (DDM) and AcreConnect® software) or modular components, within an OEM’s branded experience.
We sell the operating platform to manufacturers via a per drone fee.
End users will use our software though their drone purchase from our manufacturer partners. The software is designed with farmers in mind as the end user.
We also sell our AcreConnect® productivity software as a subscription directly to drone operators. This software is compatible with multiple drones and focused on professional operators who need to manage a fleet and a team.
Kartikeya: Can your software truly work with any drone hardware, or does it require specific U.S.-made platforms to function?
Mariah Scott: We work closely with the manufacturer to integrate our operating platform and data manager with the flight controller onboard the drone.
Our AcreConnect® software, sold to end users, can be used with any spray drone and is integrated with DJI and XAG drones for creating flight logs and application maps.
Kartikeya: Beyond server location, what specific security measures make your system more secure than current alternatives?
Mariah Scott: Modern Authentication & Authorization: We use best-in-class user management tooling with support for multifactor authentication (MFA), single sign-on (SSO), and granular role-based access control (RBAC), ensuring that only authorized users can access sensitive data.
Encryption Everywhere: All data is encrypted in transit using TLS 1.2+ and at rest using industry-standard AES-256 encryption, protecting information both inside and outside our system.
Secure Cloud Architecture: Our system is hosted on AWS with all critical data protected behind strict network controls. Databases and internal services are never exposed to the public internet, significantly reducing potential attack surfaces compared with standard cloud deployments.
Enterprise-Grade Security Practices: Our US-based software engineering team has deep expertise in enterprise security. We regularly perform security audits, vulnerability scanning, and follow secure coding best practices to prevent common threats.
Continuous Monitoring & Incident Response: Our system is instrumented with real-time monitoring, logging, and automated alerting to quickly detect and respond to potential security incidents.
Kartikeya: What’s your most compelling incentive to convince operators to switch from established, convenient systems?
Mariah Scott: When looking for a new drone system, operators should look beyond the ‘speeds and feeds’ to consider how this drone will work for them as a tool on their farm. And that means considering the software that flies the drone and manages its data.
Data control and portability. Most operators will need to share a flight log, an application map, or a record of where they flew and what treatment you applied. Many closed Chinese systems cannot do that. If your drone crashes, is banned or you just decide you want a different manufacturer, losing your data—flights, fields, customers—is a real outcome and a big setback to your productivity. With our drone data manager, your data is secure, in the U.S., and you are in control of how it is used.
Usability. Our software is designed and built in the U.S., for U.S. agricultural users. This means that drones using our operating platform will feel easier to use and more productive than those that use software developed in China and translated. Even simple items, make a big difference in usability – like using acres, feet and gallons instead of hectares, meters, and liters.
U.S. Based Support: When issues arise with Chinese-made software, they’re typically routed to overseas engineering teams, leading to long response times, unclear ownership, and little to no feedback for the farmer about whether or when the problem will be resolved. With a U.S.-based engineering team, the feedback loop is much faster. Operators get transparency into issue ownership, clear timelines, and reliable updates on when their concerns will be addressed.
Kartikeya: What single metric will define success for American Autonomy, Inc. in the next 12 months?
Mariah Scott: Adoption of our software—the number of drones and users who are using our software with their agricultural drone.
We already have a foundation for usage with our AcreConnect® productivity software, which is the leading platform for spray drone management, with customers active nationwide.
The first drones using our operating platform will launch for the 2026 season from Exedy® Drones.
We look forward to publicly disclosing additional drone manufacturers who will be using our operating platform in the new year.
