Caterpillar wants to repeat on jobsites what it spent decades building in mines. On 30 August 2026, CTO Jaime Mineart explained how haul-truck and drill autonomy feeds the company’s AI rollout. Caterpillar also launched Cat AI Assistant, a voice-driven helper for field technicians.
Key takeaways
- Cat AI Assistant answers by voice with repair procedures and part numbers.
- Models draw on 1.6 million connected assets and over 16 PB of structured data.
- $100 million over five years for training in AI and robotics.
- Headcount at end-2025: about 118,000 people.
- Q2 2026 revenue: $20.5 billion, an all-time company record.
From the mine to the jobsite
Autonomy at Caterpillar started in mining. Haul trucks?haul truck: A heavy off-road dump truck that moves ore and waste rock in an open-pit mine, with payloads measured in tens or hundreds of tonnes. It runs fixed routes between the pit and the dump point., drills, underground loaders and dozers have run there without operators for years. A mine is a closed environment: fixed routes, few people, one landowner.
A jobsite is the opposite: shifting geometry, subcontractors, foot traffic, a new layout every day. That gap, not the algorithm, is the bottleneck.
| Dimension | Mine | Jobsite |
|---|---|---|
| Surroundings | Closed environment, fixed routes | Shifting geometry, a new layout every day |
| People in the work area | Few people, one landowner | Subcontractors and foot traffic |
| State of autonomy | Haul trucks, drills, underground loaders and dozers without operators for years | Named by the CTO as the next target, alongside quarries |
| Bottleneck | — | Incorporating the technology into customer workflows |
The hard part about autonomy and about physical AI is incorporating that technology into the customer jobsite and into the workflows.
Jaime Mineart, chief technology officer, Caterpillar.
An assistant built on 16 petabytes
A technician talks to the assistant and gets a repair procedure, a diagnostic hint or a part number. It taps the company’s own data: 1.6 million connected assets and over 16 PB of structured data?structured data: Data stored in a fixed format such as tables or telemetry fields. It can be filtered and queried directly, unlike free text or raw recordings.. Mineart says customers and technicians already use it.
AI has also moved inside the company: digital twins?digital twin: A virtual copy of a machine or production line, fed by data from the real asset. It lets engineers simulate changes without touching the running hardware. support manufacturing analysis, while AI agents modernise legacy code and catch defects earlier.
A record quarter funds the shift
Caterpillar closed Q2 2026 with $20.5 billion in sales and revenues, up 24% year over year. It was the first quarter above $20 billion in company history, CEO Joe Creed said.
Power Generation grew 29% to $3.098 billion, driven mainly by data centres.
Why it matters
Caterpillar is testing the claim that autonomy scales through workflows, not the algorithm alone. Mining handed it data and proven machine control. A jobsite removes control of the surroundings. If the assistant genuinely cuts service downtime, the edge becomes the connected fleet rather than the model. That shifts competition onto ground no start-up can quickly cover: decades of data from working machines.
What’s next
- Mineart named quarries and construction sites as the next targets for mining-born autonomy.
- The $100 million training programme runs five years, so results will show later.
- The company guides for further Power Generation growth in 2026, driven by data centres.
