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Agriculture & Environment · Updated Aug 2026

Agricultural Equipment Operators

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.

JVS 2.0.0-phase4b
AI Exposure
58/100
Moderate

How much of this occupation’s work can be materially affected by current AI systems.

Replacement Risk
46/100
Moderate

How likely exposure is to translate into reduced human demand.

Includes provisional estimates for AI adoption pressure and labour-market resilience. How this is measured

Evidence quality
Confidence82/100
Task coverage85%

Confidence reflects task coverage, mapping and capability-evidence quality, and how much of the score rests on provisional inputs.

Task-level evidence

What is driving the score?

Occupation scores are built from the task mix—not a single prediction about a job title.

JVS 2.0.0-phase4b
TaskImportanceAI impactExposure
Load and unload crops or containers of materials, manually or using conveyors, handtrucks, forklifts, or transfer augers.High
68
Manipulate controls to set, activate, and adjust mechanisms on machinery.High
66
Mix specified materials or chemicals, and dump solutions, powders, or seeds into planter or sprayer machinery.High
66
Position boxes or attach bags at discharge ends of machinery to catch products, removing and closing full containers.Medium
66
Weigh crop-filled containers, and record weights and other identifying information.High
69
Load hoppers, containers, or conveyors to feed machines with products, using forklifts, transfer augers, suction gates, shovels, or pitchforks.High
66
Operate or tend equipment used in agricultural production, such as tractors, combines, and irrigation equipment.High
63
Operate towed machines such as seed drills or manure spreaders to plant, fertilize, dust, and spray crops.High
65
Guide products on conveyors to regulate flow through machines, and to discard diseased or rotten products.High
66
Attach farm implements such as plows, discs, sprayers, or harvesters to tractors, using bolts and hand tools.Medium
66
Walk beside or ride on planting machines while inserting plants in planter mechanisms at specified intervals.High
66
Observe and listen to machinery operation to detect equipment malfunctions.High
33
Direct and monitor the activities of work crews engaged in planting, weeding, or harvesting activities.High
36
Adjust, repair, and service farm machinery and notify supervisors when machinery malfunctions.High
25
Most exposed

Where AI can do more

Routine, digitized, and highly repeatable tasks face the greatest pressure.

  1. Weigh crop-filled containers, and record weights and other identifying information.69
  2. Load and unload crops or containers of materials, manually or using conveyors, handtrucks, forklifts, or transfer augers.68
  3. Manipulate controls to set, activate, and adjust mechanisms on machinery.66
  4. Mix specified materials or chemicals, and dump solutions, powders, or seeds into planter or sprayer machinery.66
Hardest to automate

Where people still matter

These tasks score lowest on automation feasibility—physical presence, judgement, accountability and real-world variability all resist end-to-end automation.

  1. Adjust, repair, and service farm machinery and notify supervisors when machinery malfunctions.01
  2. Load and unload crops or containers of materials, manually or using conveyors, handtrucks, forklifts, or transfer augers.02
  3. Manipulate controls to set, activate, and adjust mechanisms on machinery.03
  4. Mix specified materials or chemicals, and dump solutions, powders, or seeds into planter or sprayer machinery.04
  5. Position boxes or attach bags at discharge ends of machinery to catch products, removing and closing full containers.05
Where else this work leads

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Occupations O*NET links to this one. Relatedness reflects shared work, not a claim that these roles are safer.

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Beyond AI capability

Adoption and labour-market outlook

Structural factors are kept separate from raw capability so you can see what actually resists automation. Adoption pressure and labour-market resilience are still provisional models—25% of this occupation’s replacement-risk weight rests on them.

Human dependency53
Physical dependency71
Adoption pressure40
Labour-market resilience51
Methodology & sources

O*NET 30.3 occupational data interpreted through the JobsVsAI capability, automation and structural-constraint models.

Confidence82/100
CalculatedAug 21, 2026
Read methodology →