Agricultural Equipment Operators
In short: today's best AI models could do about 0% of this job's working time (projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index) if the work were set up for them, and about the same by the end of 2028 if progress keeps its long-run pace. The people and hands-on work, about 100% of the time, stays with people.
Drive and control equipment to support agricultural activities such as tilling soil; planting, cultivating, and harvesting crops; feeding and herding livestock; or removing animal waste. May perform tasks such as crop baling or hay bucking. May operate stationary equipment to perform post-harvest tasks such as husking, shelling, threshing, and ginning.
28,500 people do this job in the US. $41,730 a year.
A typical 40-hour week
Not yet reviewed task by task- AI could take on0 h
- A person checks AI's work0 h
- Desk work AI can't do yet0 h
- Stays with people40 h
Agricultural Equipment Operators, now: of a 40-hour week, AI could take on 0 hours, 0 hours become checking its work, 0 hours are desk work it can't do yet, and 40 hours stay with people.
Estimates for a typical week of this job, if progress keeps its long-run pace, counting work the best models finish four times in five. Every task is below.
of the working time. Now is projected from METR's April 2026 measurement and Epoch's November 2026 index.
- 0%
- 0%
- 100%
of the work: Anthropic's measure of what people already bring to Claude at work (2025). It counts help with part of a task, so it can be higher than the share within reach.
On the chosen pace and reliability. Estimate.
Share of the working time within reach, now to 2030
Change assumptionsHide assumptionsLong-run pace, four in five
What each choice means: , , , , . Every pace starts from .
At this date and pace, models finish tasks up to 2.4 work days long four times in five.
How far this has come
With GPT-4, measured in March 2023, 0% of this job's working time was within reach at . With Claude 3.7 Sonnet, measured in February 2025, 0%. With Claude Mythos Preview (early), measured in April 2026, 0%. Today's estimate: 0%.
A backcast: today's task data with the best model METR had measured by each date. It shows how fast the models have moved, not what anyone forecast at the time.
Measured use over time
None of this job's 17 tasks showed up in the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled in any of its 7 releases, from February 2025 to May 2026.
Measured, not estimated: Anthropic's samples of Claude.ai conversations, each tied by a model to an O*NET task, from the Anthropic Economic Index. It says where Claude's use goes, not how much of this job's working time it covers, so it is not on the same scale as the reach above. The releases differ in their sample, their classifier and the smallest share they report (the June 2026 file rounds each task to a hundredth of a percent, so a smaller task reads as none), which is why a change of method starts a new line. At least 96% of each older release's task-tied use matched this site's tasks, and all of the newest. Claude.ai only, so use through other tools and other companies' models is not in it. Every job ranked.
Robots and the physical work
Anthropic rates 97% of this job's working time as physical work. For 93% of the working time, a robot has been shown doing most of the task somewhere: 20% in a purpose-built cell, 24% in a structured facility, 48% in any setting. 2.13 of 3, the 2nd highest of the 923 jobs.
- Not physical 3%
- No robot shown 4%
- In a purpose-built cell 20%
- In a structured facility 24%
- In any setting 48%
Anthropic's rating, not this site's estimate: Claude Opus 5, searching the web, rated each physical O*NET task by the kind of setting in which a robot it could cite (deployed, sold or demonstrated) does most of the task, weighted by its own estimate of each task's share of the time (What work can robots do?, September 30, 2026, data CC BY 4.0; every job ranked). A robot shown somewhere is not a robot in your building: cost, setup and safety decide that. The share within reach on this page still counts no body work. The robot behind each rated task is under the task below.
The tasks
Sorted by . 17 tasks from .
| Task | Kind | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Operate or tend equipment used in agricultural production, such as tractors, combines, and irrigation equipment.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in any setting, John Deere Autonomy Kit (2nd gen) on 8R/9RX tractors (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 26% | 3.3 h50 min to 1 work day | Stays with people | |
| Operate towed machines such as seed drills or manure spreaders to plant, fertilize, dust, and spray crops.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in any setting, Sabanto Retrofit Autonomy Kit (Steward) on John Deere 6130E + 8-row planter (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 16% | 3.3 h50 min to 1 work day | Stays with people | |
| Walk beside or ride on planting machines while inserting plants in planter mechanisms at specified intervals.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in any setting, Automatic transplanters (tractor- and UTV-mounted; TTS Transplanter, Japan Agri-Trading examples) (University of Georgia CAES) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 7% | 2.5 h50 min to 6.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Irrigate soil, using portable pipes or ditch systems, and maintain ditches or pipes and pumps.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: no robot shown. Anthropic's rating. | 7% | 1.7 h25 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Adjust, repair, and service farm machinery and notify supervisors when machinery malfunctions.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, John Deere Harvest Settings Automation / Combine Advisor (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 1.3 h25 min to 3.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Direct and monitor the activities of work crews engaged in planting, weeding, or harvesting activities.Done daily by most who do it. | 6% | 2.5 h50 min to 5 h | Stays with people | |
| Drive trucks to haul crops, supplies, tools, or farm workers.Done daily by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, OutRun (PTx Trimble / AGCO) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 6% | 1.3 h25 min to 2.5 h | Stays with people | |
| Load and unload crops or containers of materials, manually or using conveyors, handtrucks, forklifts, or transfer augers.Done several times a day by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, OutRun (PTx Trimble) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 5% | 38 min13 min to 1.7 h | Stays with people | |
| Observe and listen to machinery operation to detect equipment malfunctions.Done daily by most who do it. Robots: in a structured facility, John Deere autonomous tractor (2nd-gen Perception System, 9RX/8R with tillage) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 13 min4 min to 25 min | Stays with people | |
| Position boxes or attach bags at discharge ends of machinery to catch products, removing and closing full containers.Done several times a day by most who do it.Robots: in a structured facility, Haith QuantaFill box filler (deployed). Anthropic's rating. | 4% | 33 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people | |
| Mix specified materials or chemicals, and dump solutions, powders, or seeds into planter or sprayer machinery.Done several times a day by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, SurePoint QuickDraw Max (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 25 min13 min to 50 min | Stays with people | |
| Attach farm implements such as plows, discs, sprayers, or harvesters to tractors, using bolts and hand tools.Done more than weekly by most who do it. Robots: in a purpose-built cell, Outrider System (autonomous yard truck with autonomous hitching) (sold). Anthropic's rating. | 3% | 25 min13 min to 1.3 h | Stays with people |
Within reach, per task: the share of the task's time whose instances are short enough for a model to finish at the chosen date, pace and reliability. Half by: the date half of that time comes within reach.
Jobs that share skills with this one
From O*NET's related occupations. Within reach now and by the end of 2028, long-run pace, four in five.
- Farmworkers and Laborers, Crop, Nursery, and Greenhouse3% now, 3% by 2028
- Machine Feeders and Offbearers5% now, 5% by 2028
- Separating, Filtering, Clarifying, Precipitating, and Still Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders5% now, 5% by 2028
- Extruding, Forming, Pressing, and Compacting Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders13% now, 13% by 2028
- Milling and Planing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders, Metal and Plastic18% now, 18% by 2028
- Crushing, Grinding, and Polishing Machine Setters, Operators, and Tenders6% now, 6% by 2028
Where this job works
The industry groups that employ the most of it (BLS, May 2025).
Where the most of these jobs are
The metro areas with the most people in it (BLS, May 2025).
Questions about this job
- How much of the work of Agricultural Equipment Operators is within reach of AI now?
- An estimated 0% of the working time is within reach of AI models now and 0% by the end of 2028, on METR's long-run pace at four in five. Within reach means a model could finish work that long at that reliability. It is not a forecast of jobs lost or of savings.
- Which tasks of Agricultural Equipment Operators come within reach first?
- No task has a meaningful share of its time within reach now or by the end of 2028, on the long-run pace at four in five: the work is mostly people work and body work, which the site does not count.
- Which tasks of Agricultural Equipment Operators stay with people?
- Tasks that are people work or body work are not counted as within reach at any date. The largest: Operate or tend equipment used in agricultural production, such as tractors, combines, and irrigation equipment; Operate towed machines such as seed drills or manure spreaders to plant, fertilize, dust, and spray crops; and Walk beside or ride on planting machines while inserting plants in planter mechanisms at specified intervals. Together such tasks are about 100% of the working time.
- Do people already use AI for the work of Agricultural Equipment Operators?
- In the Claude.ai conversations Anthropic sampled for May 2026, no reportable share went to this job's tasks. Anthropic's labor market measure puts the share of the job's tasks seen in real Claude use at work at 0%. These are measures of use, not of how much of the work AI could finish, and they cover Claude only.
- Can robots do the physical work of Agricultural Equipment Operators?
- Anthropic's robot exposure rating (September 2026) finds 97% of the working time is physical work, and that a robot has been shown doing most of the task, somewhere, for 93% of the working time, 48% in any setting. Its index is 2.13 of 3. One example: John Deere Autonomy Kit (2nd gen) on 8R/9RX tractors for "operate or tend equipment used in agricultural production, such as tractors, combines, and irrigation equipment". A robot shown somewhere is not one in every workplace; this site's own estimates still count no physical work as within reach.
- How is this estimated?
- From the 17 tasks O*NET lists for the occupation, each with an estimated length checked against GDPval and a share of the working time, each classed as desk, people or body work, and METR's measurements of how long a task the best AI models can finish, carried forward to the date from the latest, Claude Mythos Preview (early) in April 2026. Data checked November 10, 2026.
This job in your state or metro area
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