Co-founder
Dr Qing Xue
Director of AI Governance and Product
Building responsible, accessible and commercially viable AI products for agriculture.
Dr Qing Xue is Co-founder and Director of AI Governance and Product at Mutus Tech. She leads AI governance, product strategy and the responsible commercialisation of the company's AI-enabled agricultural technologies.
Her work connects research, product development, users and markets, with a focus on making agricultural AI transparent, human-centred and genuinely useful to farming communities.
- PhD
- University of Sheffield
- 2025
- Ethics of AI programme, LSE
- 10+ years
- Technology, communication and product experience
- International
- Experience across China, Australia and the UK
Co-founder story
Why I co-founded Mutus
I co-founded Mutus because I saw a gap between what emerging technologies could achieve and how people experienced them in practice. Agriculture made that gap especially clear. Farmers and advisers do not need technology for its own sake; they need tools that fit established workflows, communicate uncertainty clearly and support decisions under real operational constraints.
Tim brought deep experience in software, data and technical R&D. My focus was complementary: understanding users and markets, shaping product strategy, communicating value and considering the social and ethical questions that influence trust and adoption. Together, we believed agricultural research and AI could create greater value when technical development, product design and commercialisation were considered from the beginning rather than as separate stages.
Working on Mutus products and collaborative projects has reinforced that view. Strong model performance is important, but it does not by itself create a successful product. Adoption also depends on usability, relevance, evidence, transparency and whether people feel able to understand and question the output.
That is why my role at Mutus sits between research, product and market. I help turn technical capabilities into products that are accessible, responsible and commercially realistic, while keeping user needs and long-term adoption central to how we develop them.
Leadership
What I lead at Mutus
As Co-founder and Director of AI Governance and Product, I help shape how Mutus identifies user needs, develops products, communicates value and brings research into practical use.
Product strategy
I help define who our products are for, which problems they should address and how research and technical capabilities should come together as a coherent user experience.
Responsible AI
I work to embed transparency, human oversight and appropriate communication of uncertainty into product design, communication and deployment.
Strategic marketing
I shape product positioning and user-facing value propositions so that our communication reflects the real capabilities, evidence and maturity of the technology.
Commercialisation and partnerships
I work with users, agricultural organisations and research partners to identify practical routes from research and pilot activity to longer-term adoption.
Product principles
How I approach product development
Start with the user context
We need to understand existing workflows, constraints, knowledge and access to technology before deciding how an AI capability should be presented.
Build trust into the product
Users should be able to understand what information a product uses, what its output means and when professional judgement is still required.
Translate research into action
Research and technical outputs create value when they become understandable product functions, user journeys and practical decision-support tools.
Measure practical value
Success includes whether a product fits real work, supports better decisions and provides enough continuing value for people to keep using it.
Trust and adoption
Responsible AI in agriculture
AI can improve access to agricultural information, support field monitoring and help users interpret complex data. It also introduces important questions about transparency, reliability, accountability and inclusion.
Agricultural decisions depend on local conditions, crop stage, weather, available inputs and professional knowledge. AI-supported outputs should therefore communicate their purpose and basis, distinguish observations from model estimates, provide appropriate context and recognise uncertainty and the limits of available data.
At Mutus, our aim is to support human decision-making rather than replace it. Users should be able to review and supplement their field records and understand when professional judgement is still required.
Responsible design also depends on the community in which a product is used. A product designed for a UK farm manager may need a different interface, language and advisory context when used by a smallholder farmer or extension officer elsewhere. International deployment must therefore be developed with local partners and local agricultural knowledge.
Research into use
Product development at Mutus
My work includes product strategy and commercial development for Pezego, our mobile pest identification and crop intelligence product, and for the wider product and service offering built around Parallel Farm.
I also contribute to Innovate UK-funded collaborative projects, helping connect research objectives with product design, user needs, responsible communication and routes to practical adoption.
These projects bring together software engineers, data scientists, agricultural researchers, farms and commercial partners. Technical success is important, but the resulting technology must also be understandable, usable and capable of continuing beyond an individual project.
Direction
Looking ahead
Mutus has established a strong foundation in agricultural AI, product development and collaborative research. The next stage is to build wider and more sustained adoption.
This requires more than adding technical functions. Our products must become easier to understand, easier to use and more closely aligned with the needs of farmers, advisers and agricultural organisations. Transparency and responsible communication will remain important to product quality and market trust.
We will continue to develop Pezego and Parallel Farm through user feedback, field validation and collaboration with research and industry partners. We will also explore international applications carefully, working with local partners and recognising the agricultural, cultural and institutional context of each market.
My ambition is for Mutus to demonstrate that responsible AI and successful commercialisation support one another. Products that are transparent, useful and designed around real users have a stronger foundation for long-term adoption.
Background
Professional background
Dr Qing Xue works across responsible AI, product strategy, strategic marketing and technology commercialisation.
She holds a PhD in Communication, Media and Journalism from the University of Sheffield. In 2025, she completed the Ethics of AI programme at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
She has more than a decade of professional experience across China, Australia and the United Kingdom, working at the intersection of technology, communication, product development and sustainability.
Areas of expertise
- Responsible AI
- AI ethics
- Product strategy
- Strategic marketing
- Human-centred product development
- Technology commercialisation
- International market development
Building responsible agricultural technology
Start a practical conversation.
Qing welcomes conversations with agricultural organisations, research institutions and technology partners interested in responsible AI, product development, user research and the commercialisation of research-led technology.