Toyota Hires Humanoid Robots for Factory Work — What It Means for Human Jobs

Toyota just made one of the biggest moves yet in the race to bring humanoid robots to the factory floor. On February 19, 2026, Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada (TMMC) confirmed it will deploy seven humanoid Digit robots from Agility Robotics at its RAV4 assembly plant in Woodstock, Ontario. The deal follows a year-long pilot program and marks the first commercial deployment of humanoid robots in a major automaker's production facility. For the roughly 8,500 workers at TMMC — and millions of manufacturing employees worldwide — this is a signal that the future of factory work is arriving faster than most expected.

What Did Toyota and Agility Robotics Announce?

Toyota Motor Manufacturing Canada has signed a commercial agreement with Agility Robotics to bring seven of its Digit humanoid robots into the Woodstock, Ontario assembly plant. This facility — Toyota's largest outside of Japan — produced more than 535,000 vehicles in 2025, primarily the Toyota RAV4 and RAV4 Hybrid crossover SUVs. The plant spans 1.8 million square feet across 1,000 acres, making it one of the most productive automotive manufacturing sites in North America.

The seven Digit robots will begin working at the Woodstock facility in early April 2026. Their primary task: walking up and down factory aisles to load and unload tote bins full of automotive parts from automated tugger carts, then feeding those parts to the assembly line. It is a physically demanding, highly repetitive job that currently requires human workers to perform hundreds of identical lifting motions per shift.

This deployment is not a cold start. TMMC ran a year-long pilot program involving three Digit robots, progressing through development, proof-of-technology, and onsite operational phases. The successful pilot gave Toyota enough confidence to nearly triple the robot count and commit to a full commercial agreement. Both companies have also agreed to explore additional use cases for humanoid robots and AI across manufacturing, supply chain, and logistics operations.

Agility Robotics CEO Peggy Johnson called the partnership a milestone: "Toyota is one of the premier companies in the world, one with a long history of innovation and success, so it's a privilege to join forces to integrate humanoid robotic solutions like Digit into automotive production." The company also revealed that a next-generation version of Digit, expected in December 2026, will be able to lift up to 25 kilograms (55 pounds) and operate safely alongside human workers — a capability the current model does not have.

What Is the "Robots-as-a-Service" Model?

One of the most significant details of this deal is the business model behind it. Toyota is not buying these robots outright. Instead, TMMC is leasing them through a robots-as-a-service (RaaS) agreement — essentially a subscription plan for humanoid labor. Under this model, Agility Robotics bundles the hardware (the Digit robot itself), the software platform (Agility Arc, which handles task orchestration, real-time monitoring, performance analytics, and over-the-air updates), plus ongoing maintenance and technical support into a single recurring fee.

The economics are straightforward and sobering for workers. Each Digit robot has an estimated purchase price of approximately $250,000, but under the RaaS model, Agility currently charges around $30 per hour per robot. That number is not random — it is designed to match the fully loaded cost of a human manufacturing worker in the United States, where total employer compensation in manufacturing averaged $46.30 per hour worked in the second quarter of 2025, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. For entry-level production workers, the average hourly rate is closer to $29.51 per hour, according to BLS data.

Agility Robotics has publicly stated it is targeting an under-two-year return on investment versus a human worker at a fully loaded $30 per hour. In other words, the company is betting that within two years, a Digit robot will have paid for itself compared to the cost of employing a person for the same repetitive tasks. The robot does not need health insurance, vacation days, overtime pay, or bathroom breaks. It can run for up to eight hours on a single battery charge, and with a roughly 2:1 ratio of robots to charging stations, a fleet can maintain near-continuous operation.

The RaaS model also lowers the barrier to entry. Instead of committing $250,000 per robot upfront, manufacturers can test and scale their humanoid workforce gradually. Toyota's agreement even includes a provision to add more robots if the initial seven perform well — a "try before you buy more" approach that could accelerate adoption industry-wide.

Which Factory Jobs Are Most at Risk From Humanoid Robots?

The Toyota-Agility deal makes clear which types of factory jobs are first in line for displacement. Digit is designed for what Agility describes as "highly repetitive, very physical tasks where there exist very large labor gaps." In Toyota's case, that means material handling — the unglamorous but essential work of moving parts bins from storage to the assembly line. These roles typically pay between $29 and $36 per hour in the U.S. manufacturing sector, according to BLS wage data.

The broader pattern is unmistakable. The International Federation of Robotics reported that 542,000 industrial robots were installed globally in 2024 — more than double the number from a decade ago — and projects installations will hit 575,000 units in 2025 and surpass 700,000 by 2028. The total number of industrial robots in operation worldwide reached 4.66 million units in 2024, a 9% increase year-over-year. For the first time, the electronics industry surpassed automotive as the largest installer of industrial robots, signaling that automation is spreading far beyond the car factory.

The jobs most vulnerable to humanoid robot replacement share common characteristics. They involve repetitive physical motions, require minimal decision-making, operate in structured environments, and carry high injury risk from ergonomic strain. In manufacturing, this includes:

• Material handlers and parts feeders (the exact role Digit is filling at Toyota)
• Warehouse pickers and packers who move goods between shelves and shipping stations
• Machine tenders who load raw materials into equipment and remove finished products
• Assembly line workers performing standardized, repetitive installation tasks
• Quality inspection workers in environments where visual AI can match or exceed human accuracy

Research from MIT confirms the scale of what is coming. A study by MIT and Boston University economists found that AI and automation are on track to displace 2 million manufacturing workers by 2026 alone. Globally, economists warn that robots could replace 20 million manufacturing jobs by 2030. What makes the Digit deployment different from traditional industrial robots is the humanoid form factor — these machines walk on two legs and operate in spaces designed for people, meaning they can drop into existing facilities without expensive infrastructure changes.

What Does This Mean for Manufacturing Workers?

The short answer: disruption is coming, but it is not a one-way street. The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2025 projects that by 2030, technological transformation will create 170 million new roles globally while displacing 92 million existing ones — a net gain of 78 million jobs. But the net number obscures a painful reality: the workers who lose their jobs and the workers who fill the new ones are often not the same people.

The WEF report also found that 41% of employers plan to reduce their workforce as AI automates certain tasks, and that robots and automation specifically are forecast to displace 5 million more jobs than they create. The jobs most at risk align precisely with what Digit is doing at Toyota: routine manual labor in structured environments.

The impact will not be evenly distributed. Research from the American Economic Association shows that automation disproportionately affects workers in lower-income brackets, since they are more likely to hold routine manual jobs. The data is stark: robots have cut employment for non-White workers by 4.5 percentage points compared to 1.8 percentage points for White workers, widening existing racial and ethnic employment disparities. Only 12% of displaced manufacturing workers successfully transition into automation-related roles — the remaining 88% either accept lower-paying service jobs or exit the workforce entirely.

For TMMC's 8,500 employees specifically, the immediate threat is limited. Agility Robotics frames Digit as a solution for tasks with "very large labor gaps" — positions that are difficult to fill because of the physical toll they take on workers. Toyota and Agility have both emphasized that the goal is to "reduce strain and increase safety for employees" by automating the most ergonomically punishing tasks. The current version of Digit is not even rated to operate alongside human workers; it works in designated robot zones separated by safety markings. The next-generation Digit, expected in December 2026, will be the first cooperatively safe humanoid robot designed to work directly alongside people.

But the trajectory is clear. Seven robots today. More if they perform well. A safer, stronger version by year-end. And a price point ($30/hour) that is specifically engineered to undercut or match the cost of human labor. Gartner estimates that by 2026, 60% of manufacturers will adopt some form of lights-out manufacturing — running production floors with minimal or no human presence. The Toyota-Agility deal is not an isolated experiment. It is the leading edge of a structural shift in how things get made.

How Can Workers Future-Proof Their Careers Against Automation?

The Toyota-Agility deal is a wake-up call, but it is also a roadmap. Every humanoid robot deployed in a factory creates demand for humans who can install, program, maintain, and supervise those machines. The World Economic Forum reports that employers expect 39% of key skills required in the job market will change by 2030, and nearly half of employers plan to transition staff from exposed roles into other parts of their business rather than simply laying them off.

The salary data tells a compelling story about where opportunities are growing. Robotics engineers — the people who design, build, and program machines like Digit — earn between $99,000 and $184,000 per year, according to Glassdoor, Built In, and PayScale. Entry-level robotics engineers with less than one year of experience earn a median of $105,000 annually, while those with seven or more years of experience average $172,000. Compare that to the $34,795 average annual pay for an entry-level manufacturing worker, according to ZipRecruiter.

Here are the concrete steps manufacturing workers can take right now to position themselves for the automated future:

1. Learn robotics maintenance and repair. As factories deploy more humanoid robots, demand for technicians who can troubleshoot, maintain, and repair them is growing fast. Community colleges and trade schools increasingly offer robotics technician certificates that take 6 to 12 months to complete.
2. Develop programming and automation skills. Basic programming literacy — especially in Python and robot operating systems (ROS) — is becoming as valuable on the factory floor as knowing how to operate a forklift. Free and low-cost courses on platforms like Coursera, edX, and Khan Academy can build these skills.
3. Move into roles that require judgment and human interaction. Robots excel at repetitive physical tasks but struggle with complex decision-making, creative problem-solving, and interpersonal communication. Quality assurance supervisors, production coordinators, safety managers, and process improvement specialists are roles that require the kind of contextual judgment robots cannot replicate.
4. Target growing sectors. While manufacturing automates, other industries are adding jobs. Healthcare added 82,000 jobs in January 2026 alone. Construction added 33,000 new positions in the same month. These sectors require physical presence and human judgment that robots are far from replicating.
5. Advocate for employer-funded retraining. Nearly half of employers surveyed by the WEF plan to transition displaced workers into new roles rather than terminating them. Workers should proactively ask about retraining programs, tuition assistance, and internal transfer opportunities before automation arrives at their workstation.

The key insight from the Toyota-Agility deal is timing. The pilot happened quietly over the past year. The commercial deployment starts in weeks. By the time humanoid robots are visible on the factory floor, the window for proactive career moves has already narrowed. Workers who start building new skills now — rather than waiting to be displaced — will be in the strongest position when automation scales up across the industry.

People Also Asked

Q: How much does an Agility Robotics Digit robot cost?

A: The estimated purchase price for a single Digit humanoid robot is approximately $250,000. However, Agility Robotics primarily offers Digit through a robots-as-a-service (RaaS) leasing model at around $30 per hour, which bundles the hardware, software, maintenance, and support into a single recurring fee. The company is targeting an under-two-year return on investment compared to employing a human worker at the same hourly cost.

Q: Will humanoid robots replace factory workers?

A: Not all of them, but repetitive, physically demanding roles are increasingly being automated. The World Economic Forum projects that automation will displace 92 million jobs globally by 2030, while creating 170 million new ones. The jobs most at risk involve routine manual labor in structured environments — material handling, machine tending, and warehouse picking. Workers who reskill into robotics maintenance, programming, or supervisory roles are well-positioned to benefit from the shift rather than be displaced by it.

Q: How many industrial robots are in use worldwide?

A: According to the International Federation of Robotics, there were 4.66 million industrial robots in operation globally in 2024, a 9% increase from the previous year. A total of 542,000 new robots were installed in 2024 alone — more than double the number installed a decade ago. Installations are projected to reach 575,000 in 2025 and exceed 700,000 by 2028, with manufacturing, logistics, and electronics leading adoption.

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