BMW Group launched a pilot at its Leipzig plant in April 2026 using AEON, a wheel-legged humanoid developed with Hexagon, for high-voltage battery assembly — the first humanoid deployed in a German manufacturing facility. The carmaker frames it as a pilot rather than a workforce-replacement move, but its parallel Center of Competence for Physical AI in Production signals a long-term bet on humanoid robotics.
In October 2026 BMW said it would cut 20% of management functions by mid-2027 as part of 8,000 job cuts worldwide, through voluntary severance and without forced redundancies in Germany; it expects EUR 1.2 billion of value from EUR 200 million of AI spending over three years.