Lean Into AI

Group engaging in a brainstorming session with post-it notes

Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how organizations solve problems, make decisions, and deliver value. At the same time, lean and continuous improvement principles remain essential for building adaptable, high-performing systems. Lean Into AI brings together leaders and practitioners from across the operational excellence community to explore where these two powerful forces meet and how they can evolve together.

Future of People at Work Initiatives are volunteer-led work groups addressing specific challenges in the continuous improvement community. Each initiative brings together diverse perspectives from across the community to develop practical solutions and implement real changes across organizations. The Ohio State University Center for Operational Excellence is proud to serve as the sponsoring organization for Lean Into AI.

The cornerstone of the Lean Into AI work group is a six-part collaborative webinar series featuring conversations between AI experts and Lean practitioners. Each session pairs thought leaders from both fields to explore emerging technologies and real-world case studies. Guided by a skilled facilitator, the series bridges perspectives, translates complex concepts into actionable ideas, and helps lean professionals understand how to use AI tools responsibly and effectively in their improvement work.

Past Events

August 20, 2025 | Part One: Optimization Before Automation

To kick off the Lean Into AI series, Purdue Professor Ali Shakouri and Toyota Production System Support Center President Jamie Bonini presented a case study on challenges and opportunities when applying the latest advances in artificial intelligence in a manufacturing setting. They shared insights on the importance of eliminating waste and streamlining processes before applying AI technologies and automation.

October 22, 2025 | Part Two: Moving from AI Skeptic to Strategist

Encouraging Leaders CEO Marc D. Braun and LEI Senior Director Tyson Heaton joined Lean Into AI series facilitator Steve Pereira for a conversation on the AI implementation journey. They offered practical ideas for leaders looking to guide their teams through AI adoption with greater clarity and confidence.

February 11, 2026 | Part Three: Can AI Do That?

AI is everywhere, but for many operational excellence practitioners, the real question is simple: "Can AI actually help with the work I do every day?" In this highly interactive Lean Into AI session, Jim Perry led a live, crowd-sourced exploration of real operational use cases submitted by participants.

June 10, 2026 | Part Four: Designing Persona-Based AI Training

As AI becomes increasingly embedded in workflows, upskilling is no longer optional for organizations to prepare their workforce. Dr. Ada Safak joined Steve Pereira for a conversation on developing AI training that keeps workforce skills aligned with fast-changing technical capabilities and real work needs.

View recordings of past events

Upcoming Events

Lean Into AI: Designing Organizations for Agentic Automation

August 26 | 12 – 1 p.m. | Zoom Webinar

Agentic automation is quickly becoming the next frontier of enterprise AI, yet organizations are rushing to deploy ‘agents’ without first establishing a common definition of what agentic actually means or designing the organizational systems required to support it. The challenge isn’t selecting the right technology—it’s redesigning the enterprise to govern, integrate, and continuously improve a digital workforce alongside human teams. This is a challenge Lean and operational excellence leaders are uniquely positioned to solve.

To continue Lean Into AI series, transformation leader Sandeep Chennikara will join Steve Pereira for a conversation on agentic automation as an enterprise design challenge. They’ll discuss why every AI-enabled solution shouldn’t be considered an agent and where the real competitive advantage lies. The conversation will highlight how Lean capabilities such as systems thinking, operating model design, governance, and continuous improvement can evolve from optimizing human work to orchestrating human and digital work together.

Webinar attendees will gain:

A practical approach for evaluating agentic automation beyond vendor claims and technology hype.
A new perspective on how operational excellence, transformation, and Lean leaders can extend their expertise from process improvement to enterprise design.
Actionable ideas for building the structures, governance, and operating capabilities needed to scale agentic automation responsibly.

Sandeep Chennikara is a transformation leader with more than 15 years of experience driving measurable outcomes across large financial services organizations, with a focus on operating at the intersection of process and technology. He currently serves as Director of RPA and Automation at HUB International, one of the largest and fastest-growing insurance brokerages in the United States, where he is part of the AI & Automation organization focused on scaling automation and advancing AI-driven capabilities across the business.

At Discover Financial Services, Sandeep built and led a Finance Transformation Office and established an intelligent automation capability by evolving an RPA program into a broader automation function. He also led large-scale technology initiatives within the digital payments organization, working closely with product teams and implementing Agile operating models. Earlier in his career, he led Lean transformation initiatives at Liberty Mutual Insurance focused on improving operational performance at scale.

Sandeep holds an MBA from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and a bachelor’s degree in business management from Purdue University.

Steve Pereira, emcee, is obsessed with making tech human and leveraging it to deliver continuous value. Steve has spent over two decades improving the flow of work across organizations. He’s worked through tech support, IT management, build and release engineering, and as a founding CTO for enterprise SaaS.

He serves as lead consultant for Visible Value Stream Consulting, as a board advisor to the Value Stream Management Consortium, Chair of the OASIS Value Stream Management Interoperability technical committee, and co-founder of the Flow Collective to bring flow-focused professionals together. Since 2017, he has been developing and facilitating Flow Engineering to make flow improvement in large organizations accessible, collaborative, and actionable.