United Rentals rolls out AI data agent with Snowflake

United Rentals has begun rolling out an AI-based business intelligence agent to frontline staff, using Snowflake technology to let employees query operational and financial data in natural language across its branch network.

The equipment rental company said the tool, called the Business Intelligence Agent, is available to branch managers, sales leaders and regional teams. United Rentals operates more than 1,600 branches and has close to 150 locations in Canada. The company employs about 27,900 people globally.

The agent sits on top of United Rentals' internal data and returns answers in response to plain-language questions. It draws on governed data sources and applies the firm's shared business definitions, including how metrics are calculated and how performance is measured. Access controls remain in place, so staff see only the information they are authorised to view.

Natural-language interfaces have become a focus area for enterprise software providers as companies look for ways to widen access to data beyond specialist analysts. For organisations with distributed workforces, the pitch centres on faster decision cycles at the point of work, alongside consistency in reporting definitions.

United Rentals described the deployment as part of a broader approach to using AI across the business. The agent is designed for day-to-day decisions in branches and operational teams, where staff often need quick context on performance, utilisation and other operational measures.

"Our innovation vision is to apply technology in ways that strengthen our operational processes and help our people do their jobs more effectively," said Tony Leopold, Chief Technology and Strategy Officer, United Rentals. "Snowflake helps us build on our existing data foundation with a trusted, governed platform. With Snowflake Intelligence, employees can use natural language to better understand their data, discover actionable insights, and make more informed decisions."

Data Foundation

The project builds on work to consolidate a range of datasets into a single platform on Snowflake. United Rentals has brought together financial operations data, fleet and telematics information, pricing, contracts, accounts receivable and internal documentation.

In practice, the structure keeps traditional analytics workflows in place for analysts while giving business users another way to interrogate data in real time. United Rentals said usage has increased since the initial rollout and that repeat usage has been growing.

Snowflake framed the deployment as an example of AI being used in operational settings, where teams operate across hundreds or thousands of locations. It also positions governed data as a requirement for consistency when answers are delivered directly to non-technical users.

"United Rentals is using Snowflake Intelligence to give employees clearer, faster answers in the moments that matter most," said Mike Gannon, Chief Revenue Officer, Snowflake. "By enabling frontline teams to ask natural language questions and get real-time, trusted answers without waiting on manual analysis, they're embedding intelligence directly into daily decision-making. In large, complex organizations, it's this consistent, governed intelligence that separates AI that truly works from AI that doesn't."

Agent Development

Alongside the business intelligence agent, United Rentals is using Snowflake Cortex Code for development work on additional internal AI agents. Snowflake describes Cortex Code as a coding agent aimed at automating aspects of application development, testing and maintenance.

United Rentals said Cortex Code is being used to translate business logic and data context into applications. The company also pointed to automated testing processes, including evaluation sets and test runs, as part of its approach to reliability as it expands AI-driven tools across the business.

The Business Intelligence Agent is the first of several AI applications United Rentals plans to build on Snowflake. The company said other agents are under development for equipment health, telematics and other internal operational use cases.

United Rentals operates an equipment fleet with a total original cost of USD $22.82 billion, according to company figures. It has an integrated network of 1,639 rental locations in North America, 41 in Europe, 40 in Australia and 19 in New Zealand. The company is headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, and is a member of the S&P 500.

The next phase of work centres on extending agent-style interfaces into more operational domains, including tools that use telematics and equipment condition data for internal teams, alongside further development and testing using Snowflake Cortex Code.