6 Best Practices from Cummins on Scaling Global Sales Enablement Content with AI

Cummins, a century-old global power technology leader, faced a significant barrier: while their workforce was deeply global, their training was not. In a recent webinar 'Using AI to Scale Sales Training from Two to 200 Languages' (get the webinar recording) hosted by Smartcat, Claire Foster, Director of Customer Marketing, and Cisco Guzman , VP of Product Management, sat down with Nicole Morgan , Director of Global Sales and Aftermarket Enablement at Cummins, to discuss the monumental challenge of scaling global content.

The session serves as a blueprint, highlighting best practices on how manufacturing organizations can leverage AI to bridge the "localization gap," move beyond task efficiency to true ROI, and foster a culture of inclusion. Check out the infographic below and dive deep into each point within this article.

Before partnering with Smartcat, Cummins' training reality was a stark contrast to its global footprint. Nicole Morgan revealed that translation was often unstructured or nonexistent, with only 10–15% of training content available in any given region. This was not due to a lack of intent, but because the traditional, human-led agency model felt impossible to scale due to prohibitive time and cost.

For a manufacturing giant operating in 170+ countries, this created a massive business risk. "When employees cannot access training in their native language, they rightfully disengage; it becomes an equity issue," Morgan noted. In a highly regulated industry where technical precision is paramount, disengagement isn't only a morale problem; it directly affects how sales and service teams represent the brand and sell complex value propositions accurately.

To overcome the "impossible" hurdle of scaling, Morgan didn't ask for a leap of faith; she relied on a rigorous pilot. Her team selected a high-impact, complex asset—the Mining Value Package —a massive PowerPoint used to communicate total cost of ownership and technical value to customers.

By transitioning from the "old" manual method to the "new" Smartcat AI workflow, Cummins saw immediate improvements:

1. 90% cost savings compared to traditional agencies.

2. 90% faster turnaround, reducing months of waiting to mere days.

Cisco Guzman noted that this approach allows teams to "say yes" more often, turning a historically restricted process into a powerful organizational resource.

The webinar highlighted that top-performing teams are 1.7 times more likely to use process-level automation over task-level tools. For Cummins, this meant stitching localization directly into the content creation lifecycle.

By using a unified platform, the team achieved "compounding interest" in their work. Unlike agencies where you pay for the same translation twice, Smartcat's AI Agents learn technical terms as if they are "turbochargers" and remember them forever. This allows the AI to get smarter with every project, clearing backlogs that previously only grew. Agents also use translation memories, glossaries, style guides and compliance SOPs.

One of the most critical takeaways for regulated industries is the role of human review. Morgan was clear: "We don’t remove humans from the process; we reposition them". In the Cummins model, Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) are no longer tasked with translating from scratch; instead, they act as final auditors for cultural relevance and technical precision.

Cisco Guzman emphasized that this human-AI workflow is further enhanced by AI content review agents. These agents can be custom-configured to review translations for quality, compliance, and SEO in real-time, ensuring that by the time content reaches a human, the linguistic heavy lifting is already done.

Maintaining brand integrity while scaling at velocity is a top concern for 2026 leaders. Morgan follows a "hard and fast" 80/20 rule :

1. 80% Consistency : Core product information, safety standards, and value propositions remain cohesive globally to ensure the brand is represented accurately.

2. 20% Nuance : Flexibility is allowed for regional flavor and cultural adaptation.

Enablement in manufacturing often involves complex, dry technical data. Morgan advocates for a "melting pot" of learning formats, or mixed modalities :

1. Entertain to Engage : Adult learners need to be entertained to stay focused.

2. Blended Approach : Combine e-learning (like SCORM files from Articulate) with face-to-face facilitation, webinars, and simple readouts.

3. The "Lab" Concept : Retention happens during practice. Enablement teams must provide "lab" opportunities where sales reps can apply knowledge in their native language.

A strategic leader is defined by what they do with recovered time and money. Morgan advises having a proactive plan for AI-driven gains:

1. Address the Backlog : Use recovered time to finally translate "nice-to-have" materials previously sidelined.

2. Internal Marketing : Promote the success of the AI rollout internally to accelerate adoption.

3. Revenue Alignment : Show how recovered budget was reinvested into projects that accelerate distributor onboarding or plant readiness, moving the conversation from "cost center" to "revenue driver".

Ultimately, Nicole Morgan’s journey with Cummins proves that global enablement is about people, not just technology. By using Smartcat to remove the cost and time barriers that once made localization "impossible," the enablement team can now provide a sense of care and support to every employee, regardless of their native tongue.

"Today, we really don’t have an excuse anymore," Morgan concluded. For manufacturing companies looking to thrive in 2026, the message is clear: if you own global content, you now have the tools to ensure every single learner truly understands the message.