THE ESSENTIALS IN 30 SECONDS

  • AGCO and Agility Robotics signed a commercial agreement announced on 20 October 2026; the pilot is expected to start in 2027.
  • Digit will initially sort and stack parts and place totes for storage at AGCO's Hesston, Kansas plant.
  • Agility lists Toyota, GXO and Schaeffler as existing customers and says Digit has logged more than 65,000 hours of real-world operation.

AGCO, the agricultural equipment group behind brands such as Fendt, Massey Ferguson and Valtra, has signed a commercial agreement with Agility Robotics to test the Digit humanoid robot in its manufacturing operations. The companies announced the deal on 20 October 2026.

What the pilot covers

The pilot is expected to begin in 2027 at AGCO's production site in Hesston, Kansas. Digit's first assignments are deliberately narrow: sorting and stacking parts and placing totes into storage. The announcement also says the robot will support assembly and production work, without specifying which operations.

AGCO frames the move as part of a push toward more flexible factories. Its director of manufacturing technology, Thomas Enghof, describes humanoids and AI as "teammates" that would take over repetitive, strenuous or hazardous work. Agility's chief business officer, Daniel Diez, says the project should show measurable impact in demanding tasks.

Digit will be managed through Agility Arc, the company's cloud platform for deploying and supervising robot fleets. Both companies say this allows integration without major changes to facility infrastructure, a claim that the pilot itself will put to the test.

Where Agility stands

Agility says Digit has accumulated more than 65,000 hours of real-world operation and names Toyota, GXO and Schaeffler among its customers. In September it introduced Digit 5, a new version designed for cooperative work near people. Robotics 24/7 reports that the company is also preparing to go public through a merger with Churchill Capital Corp XI, expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2026.

What to watch

The announcement does not state how many robots will be deployed, the financial terms, or the criteria AGCO will use to decide whether to expand beyond the pilot. That is typical of the current humanoid market, where many agreements are framed as pilots or evaluations rather than large fleet purchases. The Hesston project is notable mainly because it extends humanoid trials into heavy agricultural machinery manufacturing, a sector outside the automotive and logistics settings where most such tests have taken place so far.