Bobcat helped create the compact equipment industry in 1958 when it developed a lightweight, agile loader for a turkey farmer who needed to work inside a barn. Nearly seven decades later, the company is extending that history of practical innovation into software, data and artificial intelligence. Doosan Bobcat, its South Korean parent, generated $6.18 billion in 2025 revenue across compact equipment, material handling and portable power.

The physical machine remains central, but its role is expanding. Bobcat now offers loaders, excavators, forklifts, turf equipment and portable power products alongside connected services and digital capabilities. “Machines were once just tool carriers with attachments,” Chief Digital Officer Roy Greco said. “Now they’re tool carriers and software carriers at the same time.”

Resetting the Digital Foundation

Greco describes digital as the company’s most cross functional organization. His team sees both the technology and the processes that run on it, giving it an unusually broad view of where work breaks down and where automation could help. That perspective matters as Bobcat integrates a portfolio expanded through years of acquisitions.

Different businesses brought different enterprise systems, processes and data structures. Bobcat launched a business transformation program to harmonize those processes globally and establish a foundation that can support additional growth. “If we really want to grow this business exponentially, we need to reset that foundation,” Greco emphasized. “It cannot be extra effort to bring on every company we want to acquire. It should be seamless, and it should be easy.”

The modernization extends beyond enterprise resource planning. Bobcat is updating manufacturing, logistics and data platforms while examining how AI can improve factory safety and efficiency. The company’s data intelligence platform brings structured and unstructured information together so employees can reuse trusted data for analytics, reports and AI applications rather than assembling each request independently. Governance is built into the platform so confidential or personal information remains available only to authorized users and approved purposes.

Moving AI Into Daily Work

Bobcat encourages employees to experiment with AI while also redesigning high value processes where the technology can deliver measurable results. Greco rejects the idea that AI should be confined to one type of problem. “Artificial intelligence is not a one trick pony,” he noted. “You want to unlock people’s ability to innovate and see what they can do with it.”

One of the clearest examples is Bobcat Service Assistant, an AI enabled tool for dealership technicians. A technician can describe a machine’s symptoms while the system draws on service manuals, warranty information and other technical material to suggest answers. Faster diagnosis can shorten repairs, return equipment to customers sooner and improve uptime.

Bobcat is also applying AI to logistics optimization and market intelligence. Regional leaders can enter the field with more relevant information about competitors and local conditions, while supply chain teams can evaluate how to move parts and equipment more effectively. The common foundation is data that employees can reach easily and trust. As Greco put it, “Everything runs on data. If you’re not spending enough time there, then you’re going to spend more time somewhere else.”

Making Equipment More Intelligent

AI is also moving onto the equipment itself. Bobcat introduced Jobsite Companion, a voice controlled assistant that allows operators to adjust machine settings while keeping their hands on the controls. An operator changing attachments can ask the system to optimize the machine for the new tool. Jobsite Companion then adjusts electronic settings at the edge, without requiring the operator to stop working and navigate a separate interface.

“You’re not compromising the controllability of the machine, but you’re enabling the operator to get more out of it,” Greco highlighted. The system illustrates how Bobcat is applying AI to the realities of a jobsite, where convenience matters but safety and control remain essential.

Machine IQ, Bobcat’s telematics platform, connects several hundred thousand machines. It tracks operating hours, alerts customers and dealers when maintenance is due and captures fault codes that can feed the Service Assistant. The platform can also locate equipment that disappears from a jobsite and electronically disable a machine. Those capabilities protect a customer’s investment while helping dealers anticipate service needs rather than waiting for equipment to fail.

Extending the Customer Relationship

Connected equipment changes the relationship after a sale. A machine may represent one of a small business owner’s largest investments, and its value depends on remaining available for work. Bobcat can now help customers manage the equipment throughout its life, respond to emerging problems and identify additional services or machines that fit new jobs.

The company is careful to position digital technology as support for its independent dealers rather than a substitute for them. Customers increasingly begin their research online, where product selectors and other tools can prepare them for a more informed dealership conversation. “We’re not looking to use digital to replace our dealers,” Greco said. “We’re very much looking to augment that relationship.”

Greco sees the same principle applying across the product lifecycle. “It’s not just the purchase of a machine, but the ongoing lifecycle of the machine and that relationship with the customer,” he underscored. By connecting machines, service knowledge, dealers and customers, Bobcat is turning a durable physical product into an evolving platform for uptime, safety and productivity.

Peter High is President of Metis Strategy , a business and IT advisory firm. He has written three bestselling books, including his latest Getting to Nimble . He also moderates the Technovation podcast series and speaks at conferences around the world. Follow him on X @PeterAHigh .