A new approach to machinery support
When FarmShop took its new AI-powered machinery support tool, FarmFix, to National Fieldays, it was an excellent testing ground, and farmers can be a tough crowd.
Farmers and contractors know that when a machine stops, the job stops with it. That’s the problem FarmShop set out to solve when they developed FarmFix for its SaMASZ mowers.
FarmFix helps machinery owners quickly find answers buried inside operator manuals, spare parts catalogues and technical documentation. Instead of searching through hundreds of pages, users simply ask a question and receive an instant answer directly from the relevant documentation.
As an entrant in the Fieldays Innovation Awards, FarmFix was put in front of hundreds of farmers and contractors to see what they thought. The response from visitors was encouraging, but not without a healthy dose of Kiwi scepticism.
Once people asked a real question about their own mower and got a straight, sourced answer back in seconds, the tone shifted.
Across the four days of Fieldays, FarmShop completed around 90 demonstrations per day and almost double in meaningful conversations about the use of AI for support.
The biggest issue visitors kept raising wasn’t the machinery itself, it’s finding the right answer fast when something goes wrong.
“People talked about downtime during the season, lost manuals, struggling to find the right part number, the frustration of receiving a wrong part, or needing help after hours when nobody is available on the phone,” says FarmShop AI Manager, Drew Laidlaw.
FarmFix sorts these issues.
One farmer described a situation where a potential investor was on farm and someone who didn’t usually operate the mower tried to, leading to a specialist callout to solve a very basic issue. The investor also got sprayed with hydraulic oil in the process, creating an expensive and embarrassing situation that contributed to a lost investment opportunity.
Stories like that reinforced why FarmShop built the platform. Nobody wants to read a 200-page manual at 6am in a wet paddock, they just want the answer.
One of the biggest surprises for visitors was the tool’s ability to identify parts and return accurate part numbers.
“The penny-drop moment was usually when people realised it wasn’t giving vague AI answers,” Drew says. “It was providing specific info and citing actual page numbers of where it came from.”
Visitors liked the speed at which FarmFix provides answers and being able to snap a photo of a part or a problem and get pointed in the right direction within seconds.
Many visitors said they had experimented with generic AI tools like ChatGPT but were wary of trusting the results. FarmFix takes a different approach, only answering questions when information can be verified from official documentation.
That transparency proved critical for building trust, and it’s something FarmShop won’t budge on.
The most common question asked during demonstrations?
“How do I change the blades?”
Feedback at Fieldays also helped shape the platform’s future direction.
While FarmShop expected machinery support to be the primary use case, spare parts identification emerged as a stronger need than anticipated.
Farmers came in sceptical and left asking when they could have it across all their machinery. As a result, future development will focus heavily on broadening its coverage across the entire machinery range.
FarmShop believes AI will become a valuable first line of support for machinery owners, provided it remains honest and grounded in verified information.
It won't replace the dealer or the expert on the phone, it simply handles the routine questions 24/7, freeing people to spend time on the hard problems that really need human expertise.