Industrial giant Caterpillar is applying decades of experience automating mining to the broader deployment of artificial intelligence, according to CTO Jaime Mineart. Speaking at the Ai4 conference in Las Vegas, Mineart explained that the company’s push into autonomy began in mining, where labor shortages and hazardous conditions made automation valuable. Today, Caterpillar sells automated haul trucks, drilling equipment, underground loaders, dozers, remote-controlled construction equipment, and offers a software command center, fleet management, and remote terrain intelligence as part of its autonomous toolkit.

Caterpillar is now using AI more broadly, including in tools for technicians and its own employees. One example is the Cat AI Assistant, which allows field technicians standing next to a machine to use voice commands to pull up repair procedures, troubleshoot problems, and identify needed parts before starting a repair. Mineart said the assistant is already being used by customers, operators, and technicians. The system draws on Caterpillar’s proprietary data from about 1.6 million connected assets and more than 16 petabytes of structured data.

The company also uses AI for scanning job sites and generating digital twins in manufacturing, as well as across its enterprise operations and software development. “We use AI agents to modernize legacy code, generate and test new software, and identify defects earlier,” Mineart said.

Mineart emphasized that deploying an autonomous machine is not the same as transforming a site to use AI. “The hard part about autonomy and about physical AI is incorporating that technology into the customer jobsite and into the workflows,” she said. The company relies on experienced operators to help train AI systems, leveraging decades of institutional knowledge. As machines become more autonomous, some operators may shift from controlling a single machine to overseeing multiple machines from a remote command center.

A new challenge is training Caterpillar’s 118,000 employees. Mineart said the company plans to spend $100 million over five years to train its workforce in AI, autonomy, and robotics. The broader boom in AI infrastructure is already boosting Caterpillar’s top line: quarterly revenue reached a record $20.5 billion in Q2, with its power-generation division sales up 72% to $3.10 billion, driven by strong demand for data center power equipment.