Purpose: This paper traces the conceptual bases of the recently introduced microAKIS concept with the aim of understanding its grounding within and critically discussing its added value for the broader AKIS concept. Design/methodology/approach: The article is designed as a discussion paper, it builds upon all openly accessible articles in January 2024 that use the microAKIS concept. Through qualitative text analysis, the definition and essential features of this concept are presented and compared with the characteristics of the more established AKIS (and AIS) concept. The essential components of the system concept are used to support the analysis and evaluation of the former's explanatory content. Findings: The analysis suggests that the use of the concept does not generate an epistemological added value and thus does not enhance our analytical understanding of innovation situations or processes due to a deficit of explaining the relations or linkages within the microAKIS. Practical implications: The consideration of the concept's limited explanatory significance can help to make AKIS-related political and scientific discussions more precise and to avoid misunderstandings. Theoretical implications: The findings question the relevance of the proposed micro-level system approach to knowledge acquisition and innovation processes at farm level. Originality/value: The paper is original in that it opens up a scholarly discussion of concepts that rarely happens in journals these days. Its value lies in the fact that it addresses a perceived explanatory deficit and stimulates the explicit formulation of assumed cause--effect relations and linkages in social situations and processes.