Videos
AI Reshapes Enterprise Marketing at Caterpillar
Insights
- AI dramatically increases creative speed, but enterprise adoption remains uneven and constrained by governance and process.
- The biggest barrier to AI value is not awareness, but practical, everyday usage across marketing teams.
- Measuring true customer intent is emerging as AI’s next major opportunity in marketing analytics.
How is AI changing creative work, adoption, and measurement in enterprise marketing?
Chris Rosario, Senior Strategist at Caterpillar, explores how AI is reshaping marketing organizations: speeding creative output, challenging traditional governance models, and exposing a persistent gap between awareness and real-world adoption.
Chris outlines three critical shifts shaping marketing’s AI future:
- Why AI-driven creative tools are dramatically increasing speed and output, but risk creative sameness without human judgment.
- How generational differences, process inertia, and fear are slowing enterprise AI adoption despite widespread usage.
- Where AI may redefine marketing measurement by modeling intent through content consumption and behavioral signals.
Drawing on his experience across large enterprises, Chris explains why smaller teams and consultancies often move faster with AI, while global organizations must balance innovation with legal, brand, and data safeguards. He also highlights how AI is quietly transforming analytics by enabling faster segmentation, pattern recognition, and new ways to think about customer behavior. This conversation offers marketing leaders a grounded view of how to responsibly scale AI, empower teams, and rethink measurement in an increasingly automated content landscape.
This interview was recorded at the 2025 ANA Measurement & Analytics Conference in Chicago as part of a partnership between Infosys Aster and the Association of National Advertisers. Click to learn more about the ANA and the Global CMO Growth Council.
Dylan Cosper:
Hi, I'm Dylan Cosper with the Infosys Knowledge Institute. Today I'm joined by Chris Rosario, senior strategist at Caterpillar. Chris, thank you for joining us.
Chris Rosario:
Thank you for having me.
Dylan Cosper:
So the topic today is AI, and particularly AI in marketing. In your experience so far in what you're seeing either within your organization or outside of it, how is AI changing the marketing organization today?
Chris Rosario:
I mean, I think the fastest adoption of AI is outside of large corporations more in consulting because of the ease of adoption. When you think about a larger organization and legal and just how larger organizations move, they're a little bit slower. But I see it, especially in my space from a creative standpoint, creative output is much quicker. Slower to adopt just because of the legal implications and not necessarily knowing what could be leveraged with AI. From a creative standpoint, when do you say it is AI or it's not AI? And then also from a measurement standpoint, analytics. How can you look at your data set, evaluate it much quicker, look at where your data's being stored and segment it. So there's a variety of different places that personally I'm using AI and seeing it adopted.
Dylan Cosper:
Excellent. So in your experience so far, have there been any kind of interesting surprises? I mean, we've seen little faux pas here and there, the hallucinations, things that kind of make it to the public that are a bit of a surprise. But have you seen any surprises in your own AI adoption or at some of the companies that you've worked with?
Chris Rosario:
I think surprising is the just general lack of adoption. So I'll give you an example. Someone is working on an event space, and they were given measurements. And they were like, "I just want to understand what that looks like in actual space." So a colleague asked for me to, "Hey, can you help me measure out this space so I can see how big it is?" And I said, "Sure." And then I went to my desk, and I was like, "How big is X by X space in everyday objects?" And I was able to tell them, "Hey, this is two school buses long by a half a school bus."
And just think about going out, getting a measurement tape, having to measure that out versus... And that was their first thought. And my first thought was, I'm just going to go to AI and get these measurements. So I think there's just a general lack of adoption or understanding of use cases of it and how to use it. And so to me, that's what's really the most surprising because everyone knows AI is out there, but how can they use it in their day-to-day? I find that to be the most surprising.
Dylan Cosper:
And that's pretty interesting. And I'm curious to know, why do you think there is that lack of adoption? I mean, there's definitely a mindset shift. Because I mean, typically you would go measure the space, and that's how you'd figure it out. But are there any other things that you think are driving this lack of adoption?
Chris Rosario:
Understanding, exposure. And I dare I say this, but I think it's generational. I'm kind of in the middle of a generation. Millennial, you've got a generation above me and below me. I wonder how a younger generation is just being exposed to it and uses it firsthand. I just think people are set in their ways and they are comfortable in doing what they're doing. So there's just a general lack of knowledge or understanding.
And especially when you work in a larger corporation. They have systems, they have processes, this is how you do things. You're seeing larger organizations start to adopt AI. How do they leverage it? How does it ring safe so that information's not being shared, exposed outside of the organization? So as that, as larger organizations start to adopt it, then start to train their employees. I think that's why I go back when you're seeing smaller outfits, consulting firms, more startups, or like a mom and pop like marketing, they have to adopt this technology in order to respond to their customer needs. Larger organizations can be slower because they have embedded processes.
Dylan Cosper:
So on that AI journey, what are some of the most important decisions that you see organizations should be making right now to ensure their success with AI in the future?
Chris Rosario:
When you think about that from a creative standpoint, I can throw in customer pain points. I need a video. Like I can put parameters and then it's going to give me a basis of idea. But if every company is doing that, then there's going to be a certain level of sameness. So how do you ensure that there's authenticity, truth, or value? I don't know the answer to that question. But I say it in the sense that these are the types of conversations and discussions that need to happen because I think that there can become a reliance. I'm using AI on a day-to-day basis and I don't hide it. I share it. But I do that so that other people in my organization or peers can not be afraid of it or get ideas of how to use it. Then we can discuss how it should be used. And not only how AI should be used, but how do we use the output? And it's about having that dialogue and conversation.
Dylan Cosper:
It's dropping the taboo of it. I mean, there was a speaker I saw bring up, "Hey, you're all companies that likely have some sort of governance in place that tells people that they shouldn't be using it and this is how you're going to get in trouble for using it." Well, guess what? They're all using it.
Chris Rosario:
Exactly.
Dylan Cosper:
They're just not telling you about it. And I think it's an important distinction you just made is you have to start dropping that taboo because how are you ever going to safely use it if you don't?
Chris Rosario:
Right. I mean, I'm sure companies can have firewalls that say don't go to that, but everyone has a cell phone and they can go use it. And so how do you, again, start having that education, start having that dialogue? And I think it's also the fear of AI removing jobs. Do I need to work with five copywriters or can I have two copywriters skilled in prompting? But the point is skilled in prompting. And so let's start to have those conversation about what is effective prompting, how to engage AI. And then again, how to leverage the output because it shouldn't just be a reliance on what it provides because it's got to be us plus AI.
Dylan Cosper:
So we're interested in understanding really how AI is changing how we measure marketing effectiveness. And for yourself, I mean, you're within the marketing function, but also focused more on content. Are you seeing how AI changes how you measure content effectiveness?
Chris Rosario:
What I'd like to see is intent. Can AI truly measure intent? If I'm watching something, is there a point in time, if it's a video, that we can say, if a video is consumed within the first, it's a two minute, like the first 30 seconds and then they drop versus beyond 30 seconds, does that imply a certain level of intent? Or through content consumption of I went off domain to a website, and then I clicked on a few different things, can AI create a predictive model that implies intent? I think it could, but could it be misread? But that I would love to see AI, looking at behavior of consumption of content, and then creating a model that indicates high propensity to take X action.
Dylan Cosper:
So in the next year, what are some of the changes you see AI driving in marketing?
Chris Rosario:
The speed to content creation is going to be just out of this world. So then how do brands continue to stay authentic or real when we can produce content in such a fast manner? What does interactions with a brand look like? When you think about commercials, or Nike or any of these bigger brands, and they create these big moments, well, it's kind of create a level playing field. If you have a subscription model to any one of these AI creation tools, then you can do what the big players are doing. So then how do brands cut through the noise is one level.
I think the other thing is, I'm reading a really interesting book on AI, and it's really focusing on there's a few people at the top that are driving where AI is going, and what are the implications of that? Now, how does that impact marketing? I think marketers tend to adopt technology on the forefront before other parts of the organization. So if we are early adopters, we also have to demand change. And what does that then change look like from a sustainability standpoint and an inclusivity standpoint?
Dylan Cosper:
What are some use cases, and we won't get into tools, but use cases you've seen with AI that have been maybe a little bit more disappointing.
Chris Rosario:
So it's all about how organizations are going to structure it. So I can talk about my own. I know how I use models. And then in different organizations that I've been in, as they roll out, I can see how they ring safe certain capabilities. I understand why certain organizations might put caps on how AI could be used. But if it's then become its first exposure to certain people and their usage, and there's a ring around what could it be used, are people going to not use it effectively, or be like, "Oh, this is not a great tool," and deter it.
Dylan Cosper:
I think that's an interesting inward looking perspective is, are you not getting the most out of this use case because of something that you've done?
Chris Rosario:
Correct. Listen, I don't pretend it's an easy feat for a large global corporation to do this, but maybe there's an approach of, if you're rolling out licenses and if you think about it of a circle, the center is the total capability of AI and what it could do. And then the outer ring circle is this kind of really rigid structured approach. Maybe there's circles in the middle where you're allowing certain people to really push the boundary of what can be done within your organization, but it's not a one all fits model. It's looking at different users' groups, and within those user group, different capabilities that are shared out. So maybe a smaller group is really pushing it for the larger group to adopt it.
Dylan Cosper:
Okay. And I'm imagining they likely sit across-
Chris Rosario:
Different functions.
Dylan Cosper:
... many functions.
Chris Rosario:
Yes. And that's another thing. One of the things that I've been trying to push is how do teams work with AI? When you think about a team or makeup of a marketer, like a marketing group, let's say an account person, a strategist, a creative, a project manager, how does each one of those functions use AI? And then how do those functions work with the other function? So creating a little team of early adopters all using AI because obviously one individual is going to use it very differently than the other, but then how do they use it together is another approach.
Dylan Cosper:
Chris, thank you so much for sharing your insights with us today. I really appreciate the time.
Chris Rosario:
Yeah, it was a great time. Thank you.
