← AI Lean Edge: Practical AI for Small Businesses
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Good morning, good afternoon, and good evening, depending on where you are in the world. This is Brian Bricker, here with the AI Lean Edge podcast. Welcome to this week's episode. So let me ask you something. How many times a week do you or your staff answer the same question from a customer? What are your hours? Where's my order? Do you take walk ins over and over? It's a grind. Now imagine you had a friendly front desk assistant who never sleeps, never takes a lunch break and answers those questions instantly so your team can focus on the work that actually matters. That's what a chatbot can do. Hey. In this week's episode, we're going to cover four main things. First, the surprising history of lean thinking from Deming to Toyota, and how it all connects to the tools we're using today. Second, we got great feedback from last week's highlight of technology news from 40 years ago. So today we'll see what was happening the first week of September in 1985. Third, a quick review. One of my favorite practical Lean books, the Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean by Jamie Flinchbaugh and Andy Cardlino. And finally, the Big one, a step by step plain English guide to using chatbots to automate customer service in your small business. No tech jargon, no coding, just simple, actionable steps that you can take right after listening. So if you've ever wondered whether automation is just for the big guys, tune in. You'll walk away with a clear path to get started and maybe even a little extra time back in your week.
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Chaos out, clarity in, cut the noise and dial in the win. Aileen Edge. Stream it, dream it, lean it tight. Edge. Everything just works right. Hey, Eileen Edge. Say goodbye to the sludge. Run it clean, run it mean.
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And welcome back to the AI Lean Edge, the podcast where we cut through the noise and talk about how lean thinking and artificial intelligence can actually work for you. The small business owner who's got too much on your plate already.
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Brian.
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I'm Brian Bricker, founder of AI Lean Solutions, and I've spent the better part of 25 years leading operations, process improvement and organizational change. These days, my mission is pretty simple. To help folks like you, the shop owners, service providers and professionals run smarter, leaner and faster with tools that don't require a PhD in computer science. So today we're tackling a topic I know is on a lot of people's minds, how to automate customer service with chatbots. But before we get there, I want to set the stage with the story, because none of this came out of nowhere. It all started with a quiet man who believed in quality. Back in the rubble of Post World War II Japan, a statistician named W. Edwards Deming showed up with an idea. He told managers, stop blaming your workers. Fix your system. Deming preached quality through consistency. Don't make your people guess. Don't let the system set them up to fail. Give them clear processes, measure the results, and constantly improve. He had 14 points. But they all boil down to one truth. When you respect people and improve systems, quality takes care of itself. A few young engineers in Japan, names you might not know, but owe a lot to, like Taichi Ono and Shigio Shingo, took Deming's teachings and ran with them. At a little company called Toyota, they built what became known as the Toyota production system. It was elegant in its simplicity. Make only what the customer wants when they want it in the exact amount they need. Waste nothing and improve constantly. This wasn't just efficiency for efficiency's sake. It was survival. Japan had no resources to spare. Every screw, every second mattered. And so lean thinking was born. By the 1980s, American companies finally woke up to what Toyota had been doing for decades. Lean became the buzzword. At first, it was manufacturing car plants, factory floors. But eventually, lean slipped. The walls of industry, hospitals, offices, nonprofits, even the service counter at your local coffee shop started applying lean principles. And here's the bridge to today's topic. Lean has always been about one reducing waste so people can focus on what matters. Which brings us to automation. Tools like chatbots aren't replacing people, they're protecting people. They're taking the sledge work off your team's shoulders so they can actually do what humans do best, which is to connect, solve, and create. I'd like to take a few minutes here and talk about what was going on in tech this week. 1985. So the first week of September 1985, we got five top headlines for technology. The first, a joint US French expedition, located the wreck of the Titanic lying in the north Atlantic about 13,000ft below the surface. And they were using advanced side scan sonar technology aboard the research vessel called the Nor. This was the largest and most important use of the new side scan sonar technology at that time. So, okay, number two, from the first week of September 1985, the Soviet Union introduced first fundamentals of computer science and computer engineering as a compulsory subject in their high school curriculum nationwide. And this was 40 years ago, in 1985. So also this week, 40 years ago, the third annual Personal Computer Fair was held in San Francisco, California from September 5 to 7. This exhibition showcased emerging microcomputing technologies and allowed enthusiasts and professionals to engage with the latest hardware and software. Okay, number four, Commodore unveiled plans for the Commodore 900 or the C900. It'd be a 16 bit microcomputer intended as a Unix compatible workstation or server. And although interest was very high following the debut, they only made about 50 prototypes ever. And then the project was canceled. So now this is the second week in a row we've been talking About Tech from 1985 and, and Commodore was on both lists so far. And yet today, in 2025, where's Commodore? So the Commodore Computer Company, it was founded in 1954 in Toronto, Canada by a guy named Jack Tramiel as a typewriter office equipment company. They shifted to electronics in the early 70s by moving to calculators and then into microcomputers. So their breakthroughs, they had the Commodore Pet In 1977, one of the first all in one personal computers. So they were definitely, definitely on the cutting edge of technology. Commodore VIC 20 in 1980. It was cheap, colorful, marketed heavily through retail stores. And then of course the one that I remember the most, in 1982 they released the Commodore 64. It was the best selling single computer model of all, all time at that point. And it sold over 17 million during the early 80s. So Commodore is vertically integrated. It owned most of the technology, so it made its own chips which allowed them to really control costs and undercut competitors like Apple and Atari at that time. So their, their, the height of their success was the, what's called the Amiga era which was mid-80s through early 90s. They acquired a company called Amiga and, and launched the Amiga 1000 computer, which I bought my first one at Radio Shack. The Amiga computers they had the Amiga 500, 2000, 1200 and 4000 were groundbreaking. They had advanced graphics and sound years ahead of the IBM PCs and the Macintoshes. They were also popular in video production, gaming and creative industries. So despite its technological lead, Commodore struggled to market Amiga effectively in the US although it was very, very popular in Europe. What happened to Commodore? They sounded like they were the Apple or Nvidia. So ultimately poor management and strategy started the decline at Commodore. Jack Tramiel, the founder, left in 1984 after disputes with the board of directors. Leadership turnover then hurt long term planning for the company. They had some market failures, especially in the US where the Amiga product just wasn't positioned well against IBM and Apple. Although much like Betamax versus vhs, it was a superior product. But they just couldn't get the marketing dialed in. And then of course, they had some financial missteps. They had very high overhead, falling margins, and expensive R and D with really no competitive payoff. So market shifts really, then really you had the, you know, created the death knell for Commodore. The rise of cheap PCs in the late 1990s made it hard for proprietary systems to compete. And the gaming market, the home gaming market that Commodore had once been so strong in, started losing out pretty significant market share to Sega. Ultimately, the fall came in April of 1994 when Commodore International filed for bankruptcy liquidation. Its branded assets were then sold off to various companies. None of them were able to revive the Commodore name in any sort of lasting way. So it did leave a pretty significant legacy. Though the Commodore 64 remains the world's most successful home computer, the Amiga is still legendary among the enthusiasts out there for its multimedia power. And it's inspired even to today really vibrant retro computing communities that, you know, it's, it's kind of like a cult film where at the time nobody really watched it, nobody thought much of it, maybe it was not popular at all. But you know, here we are 40 years later and there are people that are constantly searching for Amiga computers and there's a whole thriving subculture of Amiga users now. And also something really important which a lot of other companies like Apple has followed, is Commodore's aggressive pricing and mass market strategy really helped define the early PC area and made computers accessible to millions and set a strategy that a lot of technology companies are still using to this day. So, so ahead of their time. The reason why they keep showing up on our tech updates from 40 years ago, even though they're now gone. But they did get some things right. And those right things are still being used today. So fifth headline from 40 years ago in September of 1985, practical peripherals enters the modern market. So there was a California based technology company called Practical Peripherals, and they expanded in towards the end of the year in 1985 in the September range into telecommunications for personal computers by starting to build modems, including the practical modem 1200 that ultimately rolled off the assembly line in December of 1985. But it signaled their push to make modems for home computers, signaled the growing importance of PC connectivity and data communications. Because up to that point the home computers were isolated. They were isolated in the home. They were not connected to other computers by bulletin boards or anything like close to the Internet. And so it was towards the end, third, fourth quarter of 1985, that modems became popular, and at that time, Practical Peripherals was leading the charge on modems to start connecting home computers to what today, 40 years later, is an absolute necessity for the way technology works now. Before we dive into the nuts and bolts of chatbots here on AI Lean Edge, I want to share a little bit about a book that captures the lean process improvement journey beautifully. It's called the Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean by Jamie Flinchbaugh and Andy Carlino. This isn't a textbook. It's not a checklist of tools. It's a field guide for leaders. Flinchbond Carlino, through this book, really remind us that Lean isn't about memorizing Japanese terms or posting slogans on the break room wall. Lean is about building a culture where improvement is constant, where people are respected, and where leaders model the behavior they want to see. Too many lean organizations or lean organizations focus on tools and slogans and, you know, some of the aspects of process improvement. Whereas the the thing I've always subscribed to and what I really enjoy about the Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean is it's about lean thinking. It's about how you perceive problems, the importance you give problems, and how you and your teams are able to collaborate around those problems. So it's not just we use this specific tool. It's about how we're actually thinking about problems. What I really love about the book is that it talks about Lean as a journey, not a destination. You never become lean, and then check it off the list. You practice it, you stumble, you learn, and you practice again. For small business owners, that message is gold. Because whether you're running a retail store, a real estate Office, or A1 Truck Plumbing Service, you're already juggling change every day. Lean gives you a compass, not a rigid map. And if you carry that compass, adopting something like a chatbot isn't just another tech tool. It becomes part of your operating system. So I can't recommend enough. The Hitchhiker's Guide to Lean by Jamie Flinchbaugh and Andy Carlino. Available on Amazon or where you buy most of your business books. And. And it's definitely worth checking out.
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All right.
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It's the point in AI Lean Edge where we're going to get practical. You've heard the word chatbot thrown around. Maybe you've even clicked on one at a big company's website and thought, eh, that's not for me. It's too complicated, maybe too impersonal. Here's the truth. A chatbot is Nothing more than a digital front desk assistant. It ANSwers simple questions 247 without taking a lunch break. That's it. So there are two main flavors of chatbots. There's rule based chatbots which are like flowcharts. Customer asks, you know, a customer asks, what are your hours? And it replies, we're open nine to five. That's easy. AI powered chatbots are a little smarter. They learn patterns, they adapt, and they can understand phrasing that isn't exact. For most small businesses you can start with a rule based bot and get 80% of the benefit. So why does this matter for Lean? Well, think about Lean wastes, waiting, rework and overburden. A chatbot eliminates all three. No more customers waiting on hold for the same answers. No more staff retyping the same email ten times a day. And no more interruption fatigue where your employees can't finish real work because the phone won't stop ringing. So here's some use cases you can start with. If you got a retail shop, what about hours, directions to your store, return policies, order tracking for professional services, scheduling appointments, explaining what documents clients may need. Again are the things that you would use your chat chatbot for in these types of businesses. If you have a real estate office, you could have your chatbot pre qualifying your buyers, listing open house times, capturing leads after hours and for like a law or an accounting firm, initial screening questionnaires or FAQs about fees or the process to work with your agency. All tremendously beneficial to your abilities in your small business and freeing up time for you and also serving your customers when they want to be served. How do you start down the road to developing a chatbot for your business? Well, the first is you want to, you know, there's really a five step process to it. You want to write down the top 10 questions that your customers constantly ask you. Pick a chatbot platform, Whether it's Tidio, Manychat, Intercom, GoDaddy Conversations, they're all fairly user friendly and relatively inexpensive. Number three is program the answers, just like you would set up an FAQ page on your website. You know, come up with the top questions that you're asked or your employees are asked and then put those together into an faq. Number four, always give customers an option to talk to a human, which keeps the trust. It's very important, you know, you don't want to force them into an automated system if they're not comfortable with that. You want to be able to accommodate your customers and meet them where they are. And number five. You want to launch small, test it, gather feedback, and then improve. That's Kaizen continuous improvement. As you're rolling out your chatbot program now, here's some pitfalls to watch out for, based on a lot of experience in integrating chatbots with current businesses. Number one, don't over automate. If your chatbot becomes a wall between you and your customers, you're going to lose your customers. Number two, don't ignore the data. Chatbots collect analytics. What people are asking most often. Use that to improve your website, your services, and even your pricing clarity. So look at what they're asking and be able to integrate that into the rest of your business. And also, don't make it complicated. Start with one simple function and then add more as you go. Then you want to aim for quick wins. You don't need to build a robot that talks like Shakespeare. Start with this. Set up a chatbot to answer your hours, your address, and one key service question. That's it. In a week, you'll notice fewer interruptions. In a month, you'll notice customers commenting on how responsive you are. And in six months, you'll wonder how you ever lived without your chatbot. So now let's land this plane. Lean thinking started with Deming telling us to respect people and fixed systems. Toyota turned it into a global model. Authors like Flinchpaw and Carlino reminded us that Lean is a journey, not a checklist. And now in 2025, tools like chatbots are the next step in that same story. They're not here to replace us. They're here to free us. Here's my challenge for you this week. Write down your top 10 customer questions. That's it. Once you've got that list, you're halfway to building your first chatbot. Then go to Ailean Solutions website at www.aileansolutions.com and click on the Free Resources tab to download the 30 minute chatbot launch checklist, which will take you step by step how to implement a chatbot for your business. It includes setup, planning, scripting ideas and even some industry specific tips. And while you're there, join our email list so I can send you ongoing resources on lean thinking and AI for your small business. And if you want the complete roadmap to combining lean thinking with AI in your small business, pick up my book Smarter, Leaner, Faster. It's available right now on Amazon and it's packed with the same practical steps we've talked about today. Because at the end of the day, running a business doesn't have to mean drowning in busywork. With Lean and AI together, you can spend more time doing what you love and less time answering the same question for the hundredth time. Thanks for joining me, Brian Bricker, on this episode of the AI Lean Edge. If you're liking the podcast, please subscribe, like follow and share it with others. And until next time, keep leaning into AI.
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Everything just works right? Run it. Mean Alien Edge. Alien edge. We live, we pivot, we pledge.