January 7, 2026
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of the most important aspects of the Caterpillar digital transformation. It has the ability to make a significant impact across our own operations, but it’s the potential of what it can do for our customers that makes us most excited about the future.
Our customers in industries like mining, construction and power work in complex and demanding applications. They have equipment to maintain, tight deadlines to meet, labor challenges to address and people to protect in some of the world’s most challenging environments.
“That’s exactly why we’re thinking about AI,” explained Caterpillar Digital Officer Ogi Redzic. “Not as some abstract, futuristic concept, but as a practical way to solve real problems in real environments. When you’re operating a machine that weighs tens of thousands of pounds and building infrastructure that stands the test of time, precision and safety are not optional.”
Along with a number of Caterpillar leaders, including CEO Joe Creed, Redzic was a keynote speaker at CES 2026, the industry’s most influential technology event, held Jan. 6-9 in Las Vegas. Redzic shared his insight about the power of AI and announced a new Cat solution that harnesses that power to support our customers.
“We knew early on in our digital journey that to deliver meaningful solutions to our customers, we had to lead the digital transformation ourselves,” he said. “So, we built the foundation.”
That foundation is an industry-leading integrated ecosystem of 1.6 million connected assets, a cloud digital platform called Cat Helios that holds the 16 petabytes of high-quality data those assets produce, and systems to turn that data into timely and relevant actions.
“This is the foundation that enables us to move fast, adopt emerging AI technologies, and deploy them where they matter most: on the ground, in the cab and across the jobsite,” said Redzic. “And it’s put us in an exciting place: ready to deliver solutions that help our customers mine the minerals that enable technology, power hospitals and data centers, and build the infrastructure that keeps the world running.”
The next step in our journey, announced at CES, is the Cat AI Assistant, a solution designed to transform our customer interactions and redefine their service and operational experiences.
“It’s not a chatbot,” he explained. “It’s a group of agents operating as a single assistant that simplifies our entire digital ecosystem. It makes it easier for customers to buy, maintain, manage and operate their equipment.”
The Cat AI Assistant, which will be launched later this year, will be multimodal, which means it will be capable of understanding and responding to speech, text, images and video.
“But, most importantly, the Cat AI Assistant doesn’t just respond,” said Redzic. “It will act on the user’s behalf, whether it’s assisting with operating the machine or acting on critical health alerts or administrative tasks. And it will get ahead of the customer’s needs, suggesting a timely service or providing a reminder that fuel is running low.”
The Cat AI Assistant serves both offboard and onboard requirements. Offboard capabilities support our customers’ service and parts-buying needs, while the onboard in-cab functionality is designed to support machine operators through coaching and assistance with job functions.
“It’s really difficult to find, train and retain enough machine operators to keep up with the pace of building and construction,” Redzic said. “With this huge leap in AI support, we’re making it easier to train new operators and help them access better on-the-job training and coaching. We’ve simplified access to the machine features, reducing the chance for operator error.”
At Caterpillar, we believe that the best way to stay at the forefront of technology is to work with those who are also at the forefront. Which is why we partnered with NVIDIA as we adopt AI at Caterpillar.
“We’re proud to have the industry’s best AI hardware and software powering the Cat AI Assistant, including NVIDIA’s latest AI robotics platform, Thor,” Redzic said. “Thor enables the use of multiple agents for better, real-time interaction between operator and machine.”
On-machine AI ensures that equipment in remote, off-grid locations that face weather and environmental challenges are capable of staying online.
“We can’t rely on the cloud in these circumstances,” Redzic explained. “The Cat AI Assistant will work at the edge, enabling real-time, private and energy-efficient interaction.”
The development of all of our digital technology is made with one goal in mind: to serve our customers’ needs. To keep their machines and their operations up and running. To give operators and service technicians the tools that will help them work smarter, faster and more efficiently.
The Cat AI Assistant fits that criteria. “It’s about real-world usefulness, seamless integration and making AI a normal part of daily life,” said Redzic.
