United Rentals Launches Equipment Agent in ChatGPT
United Rentals this week announced the expansion of its AI-powered Equipment Agent to be accessible in ChatGPT, giving customers a faster, more intuitive way to identify equipment solutions for complex jobsites and time-sensitive projects. The launch marks the first equipment rental application available in the ChatGPT store, expanding how customers can access United Rentals' expertise within the digital tools they already use every day.
Originally launched earlier this year as a first-of-its-kind AI-powered equipment recommendation solution for the equipment rental industry, the Equipment Agent uses a conversational experience to guide customers through key project requirements and quickly connect them to relevant equipment recommendations for the job.
“Leveraging AI can make expertise easier to access,” said Tony Leopold, senior vice president - chief technology and strategy officer, United Rentals. “By bringing the Equipment Agent into ChatGPT, we’re meeting customers in the platforms they already use to plan work, solve problems and make decisions. It’s part of our broader focus on creating digital experiences built around the speed, complexity and realities of modern jobsites.”
The Equipment Agent incorporates fleet knowledge, application expertise and operational insight from across United Rentals’ business. Early usage data indicates customers are leveraging the tool for specification and rental-related queries.
The expansion reflects United Rentals’ broader innovation strategy focused on reducing friction for customers, improving access to expertise and building digital experiences that help jobsites operate more safely, efficiently and productively.
About the Author
Michael Roth
Editor
Michael Roth has covered the equipment rental industry full time for RER since 1989 and has served as the magazine’s editor in chief since 1994. He has nearly 30 years experience as a professional journalist. Roth has visited hundreds of rental centers and industry manufacturers, written hundreds of feature stories for RER and thousands of news stories for the magazine and its electronic newsletter RER Reports. Roth has interviewed leading executives for most of the industry’s largest rental companies and manufacturers as well as hundreds of smaller independent companies. He has visited with and reported on rental companies and manufacturers in Europe, Central America and Asia as well as Mexico, Canada and the United States. Roth was co-founder of RER Reports, the industry’s first weekly newsletter, which began as a fax newsletter in 1996, and later became an online newsletter. Roth has spoken at conventions sponsored by the American Rental Association, Associated Equipment Distributors, California Rental Association and other industry events and has spoken before industry groups in several countries. He lives and works in Los Angeles when he’s not traveling to cover industry events.