How a Lawyer Saved Her Family Farm with AI

When Rachael Sharp finished her law degree at the University of South Carolina in 2012, she did not step into a courtroom. Instead, she returned to Allendale, South Carolina, to help run Sharp & Sharp Certified Seed, a family farming operation established in 1948 by Don Carlos Sharp Jr. and Camille Lawton Cunningham. Without her return to manage accounting, finance, and logistics, her 78-year-old father, Don Carlos Sharp III, stated plainly to Farm Progress that the farm would not exist without her.

A 1948 Beginning Followed by a 1973 Fire

The family enterprise traces its roots back to 1948, when Don Carlos Sharp Jr. settled on vacant land linked to his wife’s family. In the early 1950s, a seed cleaner turned the operation toward certified seed production. The business expanded significantly after Don Carlos Sharp III joined in 1970 following his graduation from Clemson.

That growth hit a major setback in September 1973. While insurance covered the cleaning equipment, the stored seed and most tractors lacked coverage, forcing the family into a gradual, multi-year recovery while firefighters successfully saved the main house.

Inheritance Disputes and Modernization Pressures

Succession planning presented another severe hurdle when the founders divided the property equally between Don Carlos Sharp III and his sister, Camille Wilson Sharp, who did not work on the farm. Lacking the cash to buy out her share, a tense negotiation ultimately allowed Don to continue operations while his sister retained about 500 acres for rental income, as detailed in a University of South Carolina School of Law case study cited by La Nación.

When Rachael took over the leadership reins in 2015 from her father, she encountered mountains of administrative paperwork that overshadowed field work. Rachael explained to Farm Progress that she had to report on every well and surface water pond on the farm, as it was mandatory to do so to draw water during the year. Preparing those reports previously consumed two to three days.

Artificial Intelligence Integration and a Super Bowl Spotlight

To tame the administrative load, Rachael began utilizing artificial intelligence, including ChatGPT, to calculate agrochemical purchases and compile mandatory water-use reports. Rachael mentioned that they didn’t have two pallets worth $20,000 in the warehouse at the end of the year, worried about them spoiling if frozen, while cutting down reporting windows drastically and minimizing excess inventory.

That technological pivot drew wider external attention. AgSouth Farm Credit reported that after Rachael discussed her AI use at a Clemson technology forum in March 2025, OpenAI reached out for a farm visit that culminated in a starring role for the family in a 2026 Super Bowl commercial. Today, working alongside a relationship with Farm Credit, father and daughter process soybeans, corn, wheat, cotton, peanuts, oats, and rye, relying on digital tools to log peanut loads from the field and manage decades-old cultivation records.

Don Carlos Sharp III stated that the farm would not exist without her.