Subject areaArtificial intelligence
Lean AI is the use of artificial intelligence according to lean principles: growth experiments are automated, measurement is continuous, and resources move towards what works, with small teams.
The term comes from Lomit Patel, author of «Lean AI: How Innovative Startups Use Artificial Intelligence to Grow» (O'Reilly, 2020), who applies it to growth marketing (marketing driven by measured growth): artificial intelligence runs in a few hours the tests a team would run in weeks.
The lean point stays the same as ever: automation amplifies the process it finds. Applied to a process full of waste, artificial intelligence produces waste faster; that is why the first step is removing the muda, and the second is automating.
Source: Lomit Patel, Lean AI: How Innovative Startups Use Artificial Intelligence to Grow, O'Reilly, 2020.
An example
A laboratory equipment manufacturer uses an artificial intelligence system to test dozens of ad variants on an audience of technicians. Before switching it on it checks that the leads generated get called back: otherwise the system multiplies the leads, and sales works the same share of them as before.
Enrico Giubertoni. Licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0: you may quote, translate and adapt this entry with the author’s name and a link, stating any changes. For commercial use, write to info@enricogiubertoni.com
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