Customers at the centre of Adobe's new AI evangelist role

Adobe has appointed former Deloitte Australia Chief Marketing Officer Rochelle Tognetti to lead AI strategy and evangelism across Japan and Asia Pacific, a new regional role focused on helping customers navigate AI adoption while feeding market priorities back into the company.

Regional remit

Tognetti's role combines customer strategy, market sensing and storytelling across Adobe's JAPAC customer base, rather than focusing on a single product or business unit.

"It's in part a storytelling role, so it's having a pulse of what's happening with customers and sharing those stories across regions. It's in part a sensing role, so being in with customers, communities, like-minded groups such as chief marketing officers, sensing where the conversation is at, how their needs are changing, and bringing that back into Adobe, so we're keeping our tools, platforms and services on point. I think it's also strategy work: coming in and helping some of our most important customers navigate the challenges that they're dealing with over and above tools and platforms," said Rochelle Tognetti, AI strategy & evangelism JAPAC, Adobe.

The JAPAC position was the first of its kind at Adobe, making the region an early testing ground for using a senior strategic evangelist to work directly with customers on AI.

Adobe has since introduced similar roles in EMEA and North America, while Tognetti remains focused on the priorities of Asia Pacific and Japan.

She reports into Adobe's headquarters in San Jose, with a regional reporting line to its Asia Pacific president. The structure is intended to balance global strategy with the needs of individual markets.

"Back into San Jose, with a dotted line to Benjamin as the president across Asia Pacific, because this role also has to be a bit of a chameleon to what the market needs, but also what the president and the various countries need," added Tognetti.

Adobe already has product specialists and evangelists across parts of its portfolio, but Tognetti's role is broader. It covers customer priorities, organisational change and longer-term questions about the future of marketing and customer experience.

Customer counsel

Tognetti brings almost three decades of industry experience to the position, including 17 years at Deloitte Australia, where she was a partner and the firm's first female chief marketing officer.

That background gives her direct experience of making the case for technology and marketing investment at senior levels, including securing budgets and executive support.

"I think there's that trust of having been in the role that makes a difference to the customers. You've been there trying to get the budget, trying to convince the board and the C-suite. So I think that builds a level of trust with the people that are trying to work with you," added Tognetti.

Her work is not limited to Adobe's largest accounts. Strategic customers form part of the remit, but the role can also support other organisations where Adobe believes it can help.

"If customers do reach out, absolutely happy to do it. It's not always the biggest customers as well. There are some of our strategic customers, but there are also others that need our help, and we can see that we can make a difference," added Tognetti.

The position also gives Adobe a direct channel for gathering feedback from customers and professional communities across the region. Tognetti tracks how conversations around AI are changing and brings those signals back into the company as it develops its tools, platforms and services.

Customers are also looking for practical examples from peers, including what has worked, what has not and how other organisations are approaching adoption. That gives the role a cross-market element, with lessons from JAPAC able to inform wider conversations within Adobe.

Its remit extends beyond customer success or product advocacy. Tognetti is also focused on how AI is changing marketing and customer experience, and where Adobe can contribute to those discussions.

"I'm really passionate about starting to bring our voice to the future of marketing and customer experience. Adobe's customer base and our experience of multiple decades is a space that we think we need to bring a voice to and help shape some of that thinking," added Tognetti.

Human focus

Alongside her commercial career, Tognetti lectures in the Future of Business at the University of Sydney, founded the Australian Centre for AI in Marketing and is completing a Masters in Neuroscience and Business.

That work reflects her interest in hybrid intelligence and how AI can work alongside human capability rather than simply replace it.

"The other important piece is I'm passionate about human intelligence. I'm doing my Master's in neuroscience, which very much aligns to Adobe's philosophy of human-centred AI and the whole concept of amplifying human creativity. It's absolutely in my sweet spot for something I'm passionate about," added Tognetti.

Her university work also exposes her to concerns among younger people about how AI could reshape employment and business. Tognetti sees industry and higher education as having a role in helping the next generation understand and adapt to those changes.

The combination of technology, marketing and neuroscience gives her a wider brief than advising customers on individual AI features. The role also covers questions around human capability, organisational design and customer experience as AI becomes embedded in everyday work.

Scaling reach

Tognetti has also moved from managing a large corporate marketing team to working as an individual contributor at Adobe, a shift she is using to explore how AI can extend the reach of a senior strategic role.

At Deloitte, she led a team of around 300 people. At Adobe, she is examining how agents, partners and other internal resources can help her work across a geographically diverse JAPAC market without replicating that structure.

"I had 300 people as the CMO of Deloitte. Now I'm an individual contributor, and I actually think that's a really interesting opportunity for me to think about modern work and how I use an ecosystem delivery of the agents that I've built around me, how I use the partners and the other resources associated with Adobe," added Tognetti.

Adobe has since taken the model into EMEA and North America, appointing AI evangelists with different professional backgrounds. For Tognetti, however, the priority remains building AI capability across Asia Pacific and Japan.

"My ambition for the role is to turn the whole of Asia Pacific and Japan into AI evangelists," added Tognetti.