The DA-ATI through the PAL.AI project is initiating the development of an AI-powered agricultural chatbot to serve as an intelligent digital assistant for farmers, extension workers, and agricultural researchers. The chatbot will provide accurate, context-aware, and real-time information on crop management, fertilizer use, pest and disease control, weather, and market updates, with an initial focus on rice-based systems. The chatbot will be built primarily on Amazon Web Services (AWS) technologies and will also integrate public and private APIs relevant to rice farming. The National Consultant - GenAI and RAG (retrieval augmented generation) Developer focuses on delivering a robust technical architecture and a functional minimum viable product (MVP) of the PAL.AI chatbot, which will be further expanded and refined in subsequent project phases.

This position will be based at the IRRI Headquarters, Los Baños, Philippines, and may only be filled by permanent citizens of the Philippines.

The consultant will be responsible for the end-to-end development of the AI-based chatbot system, covering the following components:

A. System Design and Architecture

• Design the chatbot architecture using AWS services such as:
  • Amazon Lex V2 for conversation and intent management.
  • AWS Lambda for backend orchestration and API integration.
  • Amazon Bedrock (Knowledge Base) or Amazon Kendra for document retrieval and knowledge management.
  • Amazon S3 for storing curated agricultural datasets and reports.
• Define the architecture for integrating external APIs and handling asynchronous data queries (e.g., weather, news, fertilizer pricing).

B. Data and Knowledge Integration

• Build and maintain a knowledge base (RAG) using AWS Bedrock or Kendra for reliable retrieval-augmented responses.
• Configure the chatbot to provide cited responses from verified data sources.

C. API and Data Feed Integration

• Integrate relevant public and private APIs
• Implement backend logic in AWS Lambda to process API responses and format them for the chatbot.
• Ensure API error handling, caching, and fallback mechanisms.

D. Chatbot Development and Context Management

• Develop and configure:
  • Intents, slots, and utterances related to rice production, fertilizer use, and climate information.
  • Context management to maintain continuity across multi-turn conversations.
  • Response templates combining knowledge base retrievals and live API data.
• Integrate AWS Bedrock Guardrails for domain restrictions and safe output.

E. User Interface and Access

• Develop a simple web-based or mobile-accessible chat interface.
• Ensure a user-friendly design suitable for extension officers and farmers

F. Testing, Deployment, and Documentation

• Conduct iterative testing and refinement, including accuracy, latency, and API response validation.
• Deploy the chatbot securely on AWS infrastructure.
• Prepare and submit:
  • System documentation (architecture, codebase, environment setup).
  • User guide and maintenance manual.
  • Training session for organizational staff on updating data and managing AWS resources.

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, or related field.
• At least 5 years of experience in AI or cloud-based application development.
• Proven hands-on experience with AWS AI services (Lex, Lambda, Bedrock, Kendra, S3).
• Experience integrating RESTful APIs and working with JSON-based data sources.
• Proficiency in Python, Node.js, or JavaScript.
• Strong understanding of NLP, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and context-aware dialogue systems.
• Experience developing chatbots or digital advisory tools in agriculture or environmental domains.

Mandatory

• Proven experience in AI and chatbot development, including natural language processing (NLP), multi-turn dialogue design, and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG).
• Strong hands-on expertise with AWS AI and cloud services, especially:
  • Amazon Lex V2, AWS Lambda, Amazon Bedrock, Amazon Kendra, and Amazon S3.
• Proficiency in Python or Node.js, with the ability to integrate RESTful APIs and handle JSON data.
• Experience designing and deploying serverless architectures and managing AWS security, roles (IAM), and cost optimization.
• Ability to integrate external APIs and data feeds

Preferred

• Strong documentation, problem-solving, and communication skills.
• Knowledge of data preparation and knowledge base management for structured and unstructured agricultural data.

Join our team and be part of our story!

Please note that only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.
This position will remain open until filled.