Buyer's checklist
AI-first vs bolt-on AI in lean software
Most platforms now say they have AI. Ten questions tell you whether it is built into the work or added next to it. Ask them of any vendor, us included.
1Where does the AI live?
In a chat window or side panel that is separate from the work.
Inside the module: the RCA Agent is a tab in every Kaizen and work order, and Vision AI sits in the study itself.
2What does it produce?
Answers and summaries you copy somewhere else.
A draft of the real record: a 5 Whys, a timed study, an SOP, a changeover plan.
3What does it know about your plant?
A general model and your question.
Your problem description, attached manuals and SOPs, your documents and your plant's past problems.
4Does it know lean?
It answers lean questions the way any chatbot does.
A layer built on lean methods sits between the language model and your plant's data.
5Can it work from video?
No, or only as a transcript.
Standard 1080p phone footage becomes a timed study, an SOP draft or a changeover plan, each linked to the frame it came from.
6Who signs it off?
Unclear. The output often reads as finished.
A named person: you certify the study, approve the SOP, and check the root cause before a fix is assigned. And if you would rather not use the AI, it can be turned off for your company.
7What happens to our data?
Ask. The answer is often buried in terms.
Not shared with AI providers to train models, kept separate for each facility, video processed in your own tenant, you set retention.
8What does it refuse to do?
Nothing is stated. It answers everything.
It says what it is not: no live cameras, no confirming a root cause for you, no unattended perfect SOP.
9Does the AI output go anywhere?
Into a document or a ticket someone has to create.
Into the next step: a finding becomes a Kaizen in one click, an SOP routes for e-signature.
10Can you try it without us?
A video or a slide.
A working demo in your browser on sample data, with a two-minute film per role.
See the AI-first side for yourself
Every claim in the right-hand column is on a module page. Start with the AI-first platform overview, then watch it work in the interactive demo.
FAQs
About AI-first platforms
People use them loosely. The test that matters is the same for both: is the AI part of how the work gets done, or an add-on next to it? The ten questions above are how to tell.
No. A chat assistant that answers questions about your own documents is useful. It just does a different job from an agent that drafts the root cause inside the Kaizen, or a tool that turns a video into an SOP. The question is which job you need done.
None by name. It is a checklist you can run on any lean or continuous improvement platform, including ours. The right-hand column describes LeanSuite only, and the claims behind it are on the module pages linked from the AI-first platform page.
Ask to see the AI output become the record: the root cause inside the Kaizen, the study certified, the SOP approved. Then ask who signed it off and where that is logged.