CES 2026 - loving the machines at Caterpillar as AI turns steel into silicon and the physical digital

That’s probably just as well given that as CEO of Caterpillar, big bits of industrial machinery are all part of the day job for Joe Creed. He’s a near 30 year veteran of the US engineering and construction legend which last year celebrated its first century in business. As it looks to the next 100 years, tech is very firmly front-and-center on the agenda, as Creed took to the CES 2026 show to explain.

In fact, tech - and visionary tech at that - has always been part of the Caterpillar DNA, insists Creed, citing an anecdote dating back to 1930 of one of the firm’s employees sketching out what happens when a customer's tractor happens to break down with one day left to get the job done.

That’s an eternal crisis for the firm’s customers, of course, but what’s interesting is that back in ...