Chemical synthesis is an essential method for obtaining high‐purity ferulic acid (FA). However, due to the inherent complexity of the Knoevenagel condensation system and the nonlinear coupling among process parameters, traditional approaches often fail to achieve precise isolated yield prediction and optimization. This study introduces a machine learning (ML)‐guided experimental optimization strategy. Ten representative algorithms, including Gradient Boosting Decision Trees (GBDT), Random Forest (RF), Extreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost), Support Vector Regression (SVR), Adaptive Boosting (AdaBoost), Categorical Boosting (CatBoost), k ‐Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Linear Regression, Decision Trees (DT), and Ridge, were constructed and systematically evaluated. The results indicate that the RF model exhibits superior fitting accuracy and exhibits potential for generalization. Based on the RF model, Shapley Additive exPlanations (SHAP) and Bi‐factor Partial Dependence Plots (Bi‐PDPs) were employed to quantitatively assess the influence of individual factors and to elucidate interactive effects between variables. This work establishes an efficient ML‐driven framework for the rational optimization of complex organic synthesis processes.
Bai et al. (Wed,) studied this question.