Lean AI Webinar: A New Way to Learn, Practice, and Apply

Art Smalley

September 25, 2025

Last week, we hosted a webinar exploring the intersection of lean thinking and artificial intelligence. Tyson Heaton interviewed Toyota veterans and lean leaders Art Smalley and John Shook about the history of AI in manufacturing and its current potential to accelerate people development.

Here are some key takeaways from the discussion:

- AI as a Coach: Art demoed an AI-powered tool that can analyze A3s and provide feedback, acting as a "coach in your pocket" to help you strengthen your problem-solving skills.

- Democratizing Lean: AI has the potential to make lean thinking more accessible to everyone. You don't need an expensive consultant or frequent access to a seasoned expert to get high-quality feedback and guidance.

- Amplifying Human Capability: The goal of Lean AI isn't to replace people, but to augment people's abilities. It's a tool to help people think more deeply and become better problem-solvers.

We're just scratching the surface of what's possible with Lean AI, and we're excited to see how it will continue to evolve.

Watch the Full Webinar See the complete discussion with Art Smalley, John Shook, and Tyson Heaton, including live demos of AI-powered lean coaching tools.

Watch Recording »

Art Smalley

Problem Solving

Art Smalley is one of the first Americans to work inside Toyota Motor Corporation in Japan, where he learned structured problem-solving from mentors who trained directly under Taiichi Ohno -- a lineage that is genuinely rare. He spent the decades since translating that experience into frameworks practitioners could actually use, authoring Four Types of Problems and co-authoring Understanding A3 Thinking, works that earned him two Shingo Publication Awards and lifetime membership in the Shingo Prize Academy. He is now turning his attention to a different kind of reach: embedding those same frameworks into conversational AI, creating tools that put a structured problem-solving coach in the hands of anyone willing to practice. For Art, the goal isn't to automate the thinking -- it's to make the discipline of good thinking more accessible.