🎙️ Chicago Futurist Vol. 3 with Cait Moran, Global Head of AI at Goodyear

📅 Tech events in Chicago this week

🎓 Upcoming UChicago Graham School seminar

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Cait Moran is shaping Goodyear’s AI strategy as their Global Head of AI.

Goodyear is a global enterprise with nearly $19B in annual revenue, over 60,000 employees, and a long standing place on the Fortune 500.

Here’s our conversation:

CM: My day-to-day is developing deep fluency in our business - how we build, how we decide, how we move - and reimagining what our future looks like in the AI era. Some days I’m whiteboarding with executives, other days debugging trust between a team and a new AI tool.

CM: What matters is connection. When intelligence is fragmented, you get friction. When it's unified, you get momentum.

Don’t end up with dozens of smart systems that don’t talk to each other. A connected intelligence, a shared nervous system, should be a shared enterprise aspiration.

If it creates competitive advantage, it’s ours to deeply own, whether through internal build or tightly governed partnerships. We win by owning outcomes. At Goodyear, that means we're thoughtful about where proprietary intelligence creates differentiation. Our mission is to be #1 in Tires & Service. My decision making is based on what moves our top line.

The model is rarely the most interesting part. What matters is who owns the data, orchestration, feedback loops, decision rights, and the human experience with AI. Companies fixating on the model are asking the wrong question. The right question: what decision does it enable, and who owns that moment?

CM: The best startups understand both people and systems. They respect operational reality, move fast without breaking trust, and solve real problems - not just technical ones. Speed without empathy doesn't scale in an enterprise.

Enterprise transformation is as much about people, trust, and muscle memory as it is about technology. The best ones want to build something that lasts.

There is one Chicago founder approach that stood out to me in the last 6 months: Daksh Guard from Orcho. He asked me the right questions in person and I set my key guardrails, “No powerpoints. I’m over it. We can do better now.” One follow up conversation and my expectations were exceeded. He listened. Daksh and I crossed paths at mHUB at an AI Collective Chicago event. This is representative of the way I prefer to explore problems.

CM: I believe agentic systems will evolve how authority and work are expressed in org charts. Today, the bottom matters as much as the top. Over time, companies may shift from rigid hierarchies to orbital systems, where teams form around problems—intelligence pods, not titles. Authority may come from clarity, not control.

CM: What's happening with intelligent tires is part of a larger pattern. When physical products become data sources, the twin transforms.

We may see digital twins go through three shifts at once. First, from static to living - continuous data streams mean the twin is always current, not a snapshot from last quarter. Second, from specialist tool to enterprise or consumer asset. When a twin can explain itself in natural language, suddenly it's not just for engineers or industry specialists. Third, they become generative. Not just "what happened" or "what might happen," but "what should we try next."

Together, this creates systems that sense, reason, and suggest. Digital twins are key to the Physical AI era.

CM: Oh yes, because it influenced me to see that the Midwest is AI’s biggest opportunity in the U.S. This is where AI gets real. That is why I joined Goodyear.

When your business is physical, global, and safety-critical, AI can't be abstract. It has to work. It has to be reliable. And it has to respect the people who build things the world depends on. Midwest pragmatism cuts through hype. It’s the key advantage of the region. AI earns its place here by delivering results, not demos.

The coasts demo AI. The Midwest deploys it.

CM: Stop chasing tools. Start mapping decisions. Identify where time, judgment, and coordination break down, then rebuild those moments with AI. Transformation starts with truth, not technology. Be honest about where your organization loses days, clarity, or confidence. That’s your roadmap.

The more I reflect on AI, this is what I see. AI predicts futures and generates new ones. Not sequentially…simultaneously. For the first time, humanity has a tool that collapses foresight and creation into a single act. That is an entirely new relationship with possibility. And once you see it that way, you can't unsee it. In practice, this shows up as faster learning loops and better decisions. And navigating that shift? Still human work.

CM: I'll answer this as a personal point of view, not a company position. I’m excited about quantum. I’ve been dead serious about it for the past 5 years. Take it seriously.

Five years ago, I was told AI wasn’t ready. It was. Now the same people say that about quantum. Enterprises don't need production use cases yet, but they do need quantum literacy. The companies that build quantum literacy early will be better positioned when the technology matures.

The convergence of AI and quantum is already underway. The time to be curious was yesterday. 

The University of Chicago’s Graduate Student-at-Large (GSAL) and Graduate Student-at-Large: Business (GSALB) bridge programs are designed for individuals looking to refine academic interests, advance their professional path, or prepare for graduate study. Tailored to your goals, the programs allow you to explore graduate study in a specific discipline, preview graduate-level courses and seminars, or pivot into a new career field.

Through GSAL, students gain the skills, credentials, and confidence needed to pursue ambitious goals. Alumni have gone on to Master’s and PhD programs in the humanities, social sciences, and biological sciences, as well as professional schools in business, medicine, law, public policy, and social work.

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Online Information Session

Join their online information session on February 18 at noon CT. Explore unique opportunities that their programs offer to enhance academic journeys. Director of the GSAL Programs, Esther Pandian-Riske, and Dean of the Graham School, Seth Green, will share program details and admissions process.

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