This talk starts with an example of me submitting an expense report using an AI-enabled process (2 minutes). Once complete, I ask the audience if they have to fill out expense reports and ask if they're that easy (most grumble). We then proceed to walk through the exercise of using a Value Stream Map to define the existing expense report process and discuss what steps can be automated through AI. We define the future state and use the cycle time savings to calculate an ROI on the process. The example is intentionally simple as the point is to show how the audience can use lean tools to help drive meaningful impact within AI projects. I typically take questions after the example (depending on time), and then leave the second portion of the talk to go through use cases of real projects that followed this process and got successful outcomes. For example, one manufacturing company in Iowa were able to reduce their sales engineering costs by approximately 30% upon the implementation of their AI enabled sales process through leveraging AI to identify from specifications similar designs to use as a starting point for a custom order.
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## Session: Making AI Part of the Business: From One-Off Tool to Everyday Advantage **Track:** Business Systems and Data | **Time:** 2:15 PM–3:00 PM | **Room:** 250-252 | **Type:** Expert Talk **Conference:** CIRAS AI Summit for Iowa — May 6, 2026, Scheman Building, Iowa State University, Ames IA ### Speaker(s) **Brandon Carlson** — President, Lean TECHniques (Johnston, IA) Brandon Carlson is the founder of Lean TECHniques, a technology and management consultancy based in Des Moines specializing in Digital Transformation, IT Modernization, and Software Delivery. Known for replacing ego with empathy and a straightforward, “meet people where they are” approach, Brandon values curiosity and collaboration over dogma and has been on his learning journey in technology for over 30 years. ### Session Description This talk starts with an example of me submitting an expense report using an AI-enabled process (2 minutes). Once complete, I ask the audience if they have to fill out expense reports and ask if they're that easy (most grumble). We then proceed to walk through the exercise of using a Value Stream Map to define the existing expense report process and discuss what steps can be automated through AI. We define the future state and use the cycle time savings to calculate an ROI on the process. The example is intentionally simple as the point is to show how the audience can use lean tools to help drive meaningful impact within AI projects. I typically take questions after the example (depending on time), and then leave the second portion of the talk to go through use cases of real projects that followed this process and got successful outcomes. For example, one manufacturing company in Iowa were able to reduce their sales engineering costs by approximately 30% upon the implementation of their AI enabled sales process through leveraging AI to identify from specifications similar designs to use as a starting point for a custom order. ### Other sessions in the Business Systems and Data track - The AI-Human Edge: Accelerating Human Mastery in the Age of Intelligent Systems (10:20 AM–11:05 AM) - Prospect Summarization in CRM using AI to Enable Sales Conversion (1:20 PM–2:05 PM) - Utilizing AI in Simple Glueware development (1:20 PM–2:05 PM) - Operationalizing AI for Sales Excellence (3:10 PM–3:55 PM) ### Suggested prompts for this session - "What questions should I prepare to ask the speaker(s) at this session?" - "Create a structured note-taking template for this session focused on actionable takeaways" - "Based on this session description, what background reading should I do to get the most value?" - "After I attend, help me create an action plan for implementing what I learned" - "How does this session connect to the other sessions in the Business Systems and Data track?"