By Mike Colias

Ford Motor Co. is turning its most important vehicle -- the F-150 -- into a rolling workstation, a bet that today's pickup truck buyers crave technology and creature comforts as much as brawn.

The Dearborn, Mich.-based auto maker on Thursday unveiled the first redesign in six years of the nation's top-selling vehicle.

The truck will have a broadband connection and a big, flat surface between the front seats for use as a makeshift desk, the company said. It is capable of handling remote software updates -- to tweak the brakes or steering, for example -- and some models can kick out enough electricity to power a small construction site, it said.

The F-150 has already helped Ford dominate the lucrative commercial-vehicle market by targeting ranchers, contractors and other business owners who need durable trucks for work -- and who increasingly want technology to help them do more.

Now, as the company works to reverse three straight years of declining profits, it is making an even bigger push into commercial vehicles as part of a multiyear turnaround plan that has so far disappointed some investors and analysts.

With many workers today doing their jobs remotely, Ford executives are hopeful the worker-friendly cabin will have added appeal in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, as more people seek a private workspace.

Ford is also confronting new competition from several startups looking to crack the lucrative pickup-truck market, including Tesla Inc., which is developing a futuristic-looking Cybertruck. Michigan-based Rivian Automotive plans to roll out an electric pickup next year and has a contract to build delivery vans for Amazon.com Inc.

Ford, which is developing its own electric pickup truck in 2022, has an investment in Rivian.

Another newcomer, Ohio-based Lordstown Motors Corp., is targeting the work-truck space with an electric pickup scheduled to come out next summer. The startup on Thursday revealed its first vehicle, an electric pickup, at an event attended by Vice President Mike Pence.

"You've got nontraditional truck players coming into the market that are all about being the future of trucks," said Karl Brauer, an analyst with research service Kelley Blue Book. "Ford has to stave off four or five players that didn't exist a few years ago."

No model is more critical to Ford's efforts to turn around the business than the F-150. The truck has for decades held the lead in the U.S.'s long-running pickup truck battle with rival General Motors Co., maker of the Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra, and Fiat Chrysler's surging Ram brand, the longtime No. 3, which has been gaining ground on its chief competitors.

Each year, Ford sells about 900,000 F-series trucks -- the F-150 and its larger counterpart, the Super Duty -- accounting for more than a third of its U.S. sales and around 70% of its global profit, Barclays estimates.

Even before the pandemic hit, Ford was struggling to mend its business, two years into a multibillion-dollar restructuring plan initiated by Chief Executive Jim Hackett that sought to trim salaried workers, shift more investment into higher-profit trucks and SUVs and reverse money-losing operations in Europe and South America.

Commercial-vehicle sales are a lucrative market niche for the Detroit car makers, which have long specialized in trucks and vans used by farmers, delivery companies and other businesses. Those vehicles are a smaller focus for Asian rivals such as Toyota Motor Corp.

Pickup-truck buyers tend to be fiercely loyal, sticking with one brand for many years. Models like the F-150 are also top profit-generators with prices ranging from about $30,000 for a basic work truck to above $70,000.

Jim Farley, appointed in February as operations chief and widely seen as the leading candidate to succeed Mr. Hackett, has made extending Ford's lead in commercial trucks a priority. He believes Ford has the scale, dealer network and customer relationships to grow that business as it adds the sort of updatable services and features that have aided Tesla's success.

"There's just this whole ecosystem, that's as compelling as the Tesla business model and specific to these customers," Mr. Farley said in an interview.

Detroit's truck makers have historically tried to outdo one another on metrics like horsepower and towing capacity. But increasingly, they are competing on technology and luxury touches.

Ram has gained market share in recent years after drawing praise from critics and customers for a posh cabin, including a huge multimedia touch screen.

GM will beat Ford to the market with its own remote software-refresh capability on its overhauled line of big sport-utility vehicles, including the Chevrolet Suburban.

The new F-150 will be Ford's first mainstream vehicle capable of receiving so-called over-the-air updates, the ability to beam fixes and new features to the vehicle similar to a smartphone update. That capability has been offered in Tesla's cars for years and is now being rolled out by traditional car companies.

The truck will also have fully reclining front seats for lying down, similar to a business-class airplane seat. Ford executives say customer research showed owners are spending more time working in their vehicles while parked -- nearly one-third peck away at their laptops, the company says.

For commercial customers with fleets of trucks, though, the ability to lower operating costs by downloading a software fix rather than having to repair at the dealership could be a powerful selling point, said Rhett Ricart, owner of a large Ford dealership in Columbus, Ohio.

"For these businesses," Mr. Ricart said, "time is money."

Write to Mike Colias at Mike.Colias@wsj.com