Almost every company looking to implement artificial intelligence encounters the same problem. That means it’s difficult to integrate artificial intelligence into daily work. Industry giant Caterpillar has spent decades working on versions of this problem in the physical world, and is now leveraging that experience to deploy AI.
Caterpillar’s journey into autonomous driving began in mines, where labor shortages and hazardous conditions make automation particularly useful. The company currently sells automated transport trucks, excavators, underground loaders, bulldozers, remote-controlled construction equipment, and more. It also offers software command centers, fleet management, and even remote terrain intelligence as part of its autonomous toolkit.
“We’re at a really exciting time right now where we can take all the learnings from mining and bring it into more dynamic environments, work sites, quarries, construction sites,” company CTO Jaime Mineart told TechCrunch on the sidelines of the Ai4 conference in Las Vegas earlier this month.
The industry giant is now applying AI more broadly, including in the tools used by its engineers and its own employees. One example is Cat AI Assistant. This allows field technicians standing next to the machine to use voice commands to invoke repair instructions, troubleshoot potential issues, and identify needed parts before starting repairs. Mineart said the tool is currently being used by customers, operators and technicians.
This assistant leverages Caterpillar proprietary data across information generated by connected machines. Mineart said Caterpillar has approximately 1.6 million connected assets and more than 16 petabytes of structured data worldwide.
The company is also enhancing its software to use AI to scan the shop floor and generate digital twins that analyze operations on the manufacturing floor, she said. And like nearly every other company, Caterpillar uses AI not just in software development, but throughout its operations. “We use AI agents to modernize legacy code, generate and test new software, and identify defects early,” Mineart said.
But Mineart was quick to point out that building the technology is only part of the challenge, as deploying autonomous machines and transforming sites to use AI are not the same. Companies also need to rethink how people work with technology and how existing processes need to change.
“The difficult part of autonomy and physical AI is integrating that technology into customer sites and workflows,” she said.
Mineart said the company relies on experienced operators to help train its AI systems, leveraging decades of organizational knowledge. Additionally, as machines become more autonomous, some operators may move from controlling a single machine to monitoring multiple machines from a remote command center.
But the transition presents Caterpillar with a new challenge: training its 118,000 employees. Mineart said the company plans to spend $100 million over the next five years to train employees in AI, autonomy and robotics.
The investment is likely meant to help the company take full advantage of the broader boom in AI infrastructure, which is already contributing to the company’s sales. Caterpillar’s quarterly sales reached a record $20.5 billion in the second quarter, supported by strong demand for power generation equipment used in data centers. Revenue in the company’s power generation division rose 72% to $3.1 billion, and CEO Joe Creed said “no one is slowing down” when it comes to demand for cloud computing and generative AI infrastructure.
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