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AI Assistant for Agricultural Programs and Funding

Inform

What it collects that can identify you

About behaviour
Identifiable data
  • User queries and chat interactions submitted to AgPal Chat, which may describe the user's farming situation, location, or program interests. The register confirms personal information is involved.

Also collects operational data, which is anonymized data.

Run by
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)
Where
No fixed location
Kept
Not stated by the Helpful Places.
Shared with
Not stated by the Helpful Places.

What it is for

Inform

AgPal Chat is a generative AI chatbot operated by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada that helps members of the public find information about over 400 federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal programs supporting the agricultural sector. It draws on the AgPal website to surface funding and support options tailored to a user's needs. Users are informed that they are interacting with an AI system. Because the system involves personal information, users should be aware that their queries may be processed by AI.

What it collects and what happens to it

Data taken in

About behaviour
Identifiable data
  • User queries and chat interactions submitted to AgPal Chat, which may describe the user's farming situation, location, or program interests. The register confirms personal information is involved.
Operational data
Anonymized data
  • Program and service content from the AgPal website (https://agpal.ca/en/home), covering over 400 federal, provincial, territorial, and municipal agricultural programs. This is the primary knowledge base the system retrieves from.

Processing

Language Models
  • A large language model powers the generative chatbot capability, processing user queries and generating natural-language responses grounded in AgPal program content. The specific model or vendor is not disclosed in the register entry.
Search & Retrieval
  • The system retrieves relevant program and service information from the AgPal website to ground its generated responses, functioning as a retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipeline over agricultural program content.

What it does

Creating (Generative AI)
Human decides
  • AgPal Chat is a generative AI chatbot that creates natural-language responses to user queries about agricultural programs and services. Users decide how to act on the information provided; the system is advisory only.
Understanding (Semantic AI)
Human decides
  • The system understands user queries and retrieves relevant program information from the AgPal website, matching user needs to appropriate funding and support options across more than 400 programs.

Outputs

Generated content
Anonymized data
  • Natural-language chat responses describing relevant agricultural programs, eligibility criteria, and funding opportunities tailored to the user's query. Outputs are informational and advisory — no binding decisions are made.
A recommendation or prediction
Anonymized data
  • Program and service recommendations tailored to the user's needs from a catalog of over 400 agricultural support programs. These are suggestions only; users make their own decisions about whether and how to apply.

Run by

Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC)
  • Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) is the federal department that develops and deploys AgPal Chat to help Canadians access agricultural program and funding information.

Government of Canada AI Register — AgPal Chat

Built by

Government of Canada
  • The Government of Canada developed AgPal Chat internally, as noted in the register entry under 'Developed by'.

Government of Canada AI Register — AgPal Chat

Kept for

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Shared with

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

Stored

Not stated by the Helpful Places.

How to read the colours

Can it identify you?

Anonymized data
Data about people with the link to who is broken. Stripped of identifiers, blurred, aggregated, or noised so this system can’t reasonably tie a record back to an individual.
Pseudonymous data
Each person’s data is tied to a token (hash, ID, template) that lets this system recognise the same person across events, but the token itself doesn’t reveal a name. Reidentification is possible with extra information.
Identifiable data
The data either contains a direct identifier (name, address, account name, recognisable face or voice, plate number) or carries a token this system uses to look up legal identity during processing.

Who completes the loop?

Human decides
This mode suggests; a person decides what to do next. The AI is always advisory — a human is in the loop on every decision. Example: a triage tool ranks cases for a clinician who chooses which to see first.
Human executes
This mode decides; a person carries out the result. Example: an optimizer plans the day’s trash-collection routes, and drivers run them.
Autonomous
This mode decides and acts on its own. No person reviews each decision or carries out the resulting action.

Definitions from the DTPR standard. Amber is about your data, violet about who decides. The fuller the shape and the deeper the colour, the more identifying the data or the less a person is involved.

What you can do

Ask about this system

Questions go to the Helpful Places, not the vendor.

Your rights

  • Right to Be Informed of AI UseUsers are informed that they are interacting with an AI system when they use AgPal Chat. The register confirms that AI use is disclosed to users. For questions about AI use, contact Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada through the AgPal website at https://agpal.ca/en/home.
  • Right to Algorithmic TransparencyInformation about how AgPal Chat works is publicly available through Canada's Algorithmic Impact Assessment Registry (AI Register ID: 2526-AAFC-AAC-002) at https://open.canada.ca. The system uses generative AI to answer questions based on AgPal website content.

Risks and safeguards

  • Psychological harmGenerative AI systems can produce inaccurate or hallucinated information about program eligibility or funding details, potentially misleading applicants and causing frustration or missed opportunities.Safeguard: The system is grounded in the AgPal website content and is disclosed as AI-assisted, encouraging users to verify information through official channels. Outputs are advisory rather than determinative.
  • Societal & cultural harmAn AI chatbot filtering program information could inadvertently surface some programs over others, creating unequal awareness of available support among different agricultural communities.Safeguard: AgPal Chat draws from a comprehensive catalog of over 400 programs across all levels of government, aiming to provide broad coverage. Users retain the ability to browse the full AgPal website directly at https://agpal.ca/en/home.