BuIldIng SuStaInablE MobIlIty Through DIgItalIzatIon
By Robert Oh, Chief Digital and Information Officer
As the world of automotive technology continues to evolve, International is embracing innovation to stay ahead of the curve and drive our industry towards more intelligent and sustainable ways of working.
Our purpose statement within International’s Digital and Information technology team — pioneering International’s innovative and scalable digital future through customer-centric, future-ready, sustainable technology solutions — is built on the foundation of unlocking new business, developing digital products and services, while achieving operational efficiency.
As various industries digitalize operations to unlock efficiencies and leverage data insights, manufacturing has also been rapidly evolving, integrating digital tools, intelligent automation, and critical data insights to optimize processes, minimize waste and errors, and improve productivity and performance.
Digital factories are rapidly becoming the norm in smart manufacturing. And while it may take some time to reach digitally enabled production facilities, there is an increasing need for factories to integrate next-gen tech knowledge, skills and expertise in the name of efficiency.
International has prioritized digitalization as part of our overarching strategy. Not only does digitalization provide valuable insights to drive efficiency and performance, but it plays a key role in driving industry-wide electrification and sustainability, which remain cornerstones of long-term success and innovation.
For example, International is exploring the integration of advanced technologies into its production lines, allowing for better quality control, condition monitoring and automation.
Our roadmaps include deploying tools like Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) to monitor machine status, implement thermal imaging for quality assurance, and ultimately streamline production processes.
We understand how important it is to remain ahead of new and evolving technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), software-defined vehicles (SDVs) and quantum computing. Our goal is to filter out relevant technologies and products and integrate them into our technology stack.
A key challenge in this space is legacy systems, which pose significant hurdles in integrating new digital solutions. As it’s difficult to modernize complete tech stacks, we triple down in three areas:
- Modernizing data and app layers
- Effectively leveraging AI
- Being smart consumers of multi-cloud capabilities
We remain respectful of the waterfall approach to modernization but leverage a two-speed operating model to optimize vitality, build IT efficiency and resilience, and enable International’s digitalization. This two-speed approach is all about delivering speed and agility where it makes sense.
Careful planning and the use of compatible systems are essential to developing a robust digital core, ensuring all components of our digital factory can communicate effectively. These systems will be defined, integrated, nurtured, expanded and scaled to service multiple areas of the business by leveraging cloud capabilities and building data and AI capabilities.
There are some risks, however. As digitalization brings more connectivity, the risk of common cyber threats grows. International is prioritizing cybersecurity as an integral part of our transformation strategy, ensuring that our IT infrastructure remains secure and resilient in the face of increasing digital complexities and industry growth.
Looking ahead to 2026 and beyond, International is placing a significant emphasis on AI, cloud technologies, and other industry relevant capabilities. We have established a Digital Solutions Accelerator Team, which is set to experiment with new innovations and collaborate with universities, startups, and large tech companies like Microsoft, ServiceNow, IBM, SAP and AWS.
Our strategy revolves around improving operational efficiency through data integration, AI, and multi-cloud environments. A critical component of that strategy is modernizing our data and application layers to enhance speed and efficiency across International’s various business functions. That means leveraging data application integration and AI to ensure our tech foundation can support new innovations, solutions, and ways of working.
By modernizing data and application layers, we can help our teams operate with greater transparency and agility, empowering them to make decisions and pave the way for uncovering new revenue streams.
Our AI initiatives, for instance, will not only improve internal operations but also create new AI-enabled products and services for the market, ensuring International evolves our service offerings and develops state-of-the-art solutions for our customers’ common challenges.
Furthermore, we aim to adopt a multi-cloud approach to digitalization, which will enable us to scale rapidly and optimize our IT infrastructure for future challenges.
Beyond our focus on cybersecurity, AI, and cloud, our digital journey will be built on ecosystem-led co-innovation, integrated digital platforms, and next-gen solutions that ensure we’re delivering more value while minimizing our environmental impact.
International recognizes that innovation is best achieved through collaboration. We’re building partner ecosystems that span various industries, from academia to big tech companies. Our partnership with the TRATON GROUP is key to accelerating the development of next-generation vehicles and technologies as TRATON SE (TRATON) is one of the world’s leading commercial vehicle manufacturers.
An important aspect of our partnership with TRATON is our shared commitment to sustainability. While International embraces an electric future, we remain focused on decarbonization today.
Critically, this has been aided by TRATON’s recent partnership with Applied Intuition, a Silicon Valley-based AI-driven vehicle software provider, and Plus, our autonomous driving technology partner. Together, these two industry leaders aim to deploy an industry-leading software-defined vehicle platform across all TRATON brands globally.
Combining Applied Intuition’s modular and scalable vehicle operating system and AI-powered development and validation tools with TRATON’s deep in-house software expertise and proven experience industrializing software-driven commercial vehicles at scale, we’re excited to see how this partnership will help set a new industry benchmark for commercial vehicle software.
Perhaps most importantly, International is focused on the human side of this digital journey, ensuring our people are a part of every technological conversation. And as technology advances, so, too, must the skills of our workforce. International plans to invest in upskilling and reskilling programs to ensure our teams can adapt to new technologies, leverage new solutions, and drive innovation for future developments.
We are committed to upskilling our employees while empowering them to take ownership of their future in the company. By fostering an environment of collaboration and co-innovation, we aim to create a culture where everyone feels included in the digitalization process.
A successful digital transformation also requires strong leadership that understands both technical and strategic challenges. International’s executive leadership team is fully committed to guiding our team through this digital transformation by aligning investments with long-term goals, particularly when it comes to creating the next generation of leaders and technologies.
Consequently, we’ve developed a Digital Solutions Accelerator Team and Cross-Functional AI Accelerator Team, both of which focus on co-innovation, design thinking, and ecosystem-driven partnerships to deliver next-gen digital products. Our Digital Solutions Accelerator Team will be funded for six-to-eight weeks of sprints and will collaborate with startups, big tech and universities. Established university partnerships include MIT and Stanford. Meanwhile, big tech partners include Microsoft, ServiceNow, IBM, SAP and AWS.
As part of our long-term vision, International is setting ambitious goals for 2030. Our AI and digital transformation journey will aim for greater operational efficiency, and the creation of AI-powered products and services.
However, AI is not a silver bullet, which is why we are conscious of the ethical considerations that come with AI solutions and the integration of intelligent and secure technologies. Our aim is to ensure all AI initiatives are conducted responsibly and ethically. We are focused on transparency and fairness to implement AI solutions that improve workflows and deliver significant value to all our stakeholders.
I believe the best way to predict the future is to create it. And this philosophy is embedded in International’s strategy, giving employees ownership of their future while driving the future of mobility.
International is not just adopting new technologies, we intend to define the future of the automotive industry through strategic digitalization and sustainable practices. With a focus on innovation, agility, and collaboration, our team is creating a business that is resilient, efficient, and ready for the challenges of tomorrow.
