The World Economic Forum 2025 has revealed a divide: 60% of CEOs believe AI will disrupt jobs within three years. The key question is no longer whether AI will impact businesses—but how organizations can integrate AI in a way that drives efficiency while building trust with employees.

At Kaizen Institute, we ran a LinkedIn poll (February 2025; 83 participants) to understand where companies are focusing their AI efforts. The results provide valuable insights into where AI is making the biggest impact, where challenges lie, and how Lean and KAIZEN™ principles can help businesses navigate the transformation.

Understanding the AI Priorities: Insights from Our Poll

How will AI most impact the workforce?

Our poll reveals that automation is the clear frontrunner, with 50% of respondents identifying it as the area where AI will have the most significant impact on the workforce. An additional 27% believe that upskilling teams for AI is crucial, while 17% see the need to entirely redesign roles. A smaller segment, 7%, pointed to overcoming cultural resistance. These results underscore the priority for companies to streamline workflows through automation, although they also highlight the necessity of addressing broader talent and role adaptation challenges.

What This Means: Businesses want AI to drive efficiency first—but automation alone isn’t enough. If AI is applied to inefficient processes, it risks accelerating waste instead of eliminating it.

What’s the #1 AI opportunity?

When it comes to investing in AI, 48% of participants favor predictive maintenance as a key focus area, followed by 23% who invest in real-time demand forecasting. Meanwhile, 23% are channeling resources toward individualized customer experiences, and a modest 6% are dedicated to developing ethical frameworks. This data indicates that many companies see the greatest opportunity for value creation in predictive maintenance and forecasting, aligning closely with Lean principles that aim to reduce waste and optimize supply chains.

What This Means: Companies that integrate AI within a Lean framework will maximize returns. Predictive maintenance, for example, relies on clean, structured data—something Lean processes help establish.

What’s the Biggest Hurdle to AI Implementation?

Our findings indicate that outdated systems and processes pose the most significant barrier to AI adoption, with 55% of respondents citing them as the primary challenge. Proving measurable ROI was identified by 25% of participants, while scaling ethical principles and navigating fragmented regulations were each noted by 10%. The emphasis on outdated processes reinforces the idea that without a solid foundation of efficient, optimized operations, AI can risk reinforcing existing inefficiencies rather than resolving them.

What This Means: Businesses can’t unlock AI’s full potential unless they first eliminate inefficiencies. A Lean-first approach ensures AI is applied to optimized processes, not broken ones.

AI Needs KAIZEN™ to Deliver Real Value

AI is not a silver bullet. The most successful companies apply AI strategically—starting with Lean principles to eliminate waste before automating inefficient workflows.

KAIZEN™ and Lean provide the structured foundation needed to ensure AI is used where it adds the most value.

AI Without Lean = Automating Waste

Many companies are eager to automate, but more than half of them face outdated processes that slow AI adoption. If AI is implemented without fixing inefficiencies first, businesses risk:

• Scaling inefficient processes instead of eliminating waste
• Wasting AI investments on automating work that shouldn’t exist
• Facing employee resistance due to unclear value

Instead of asking, “How can we automate this?”, the first question might be, “Should this process exist at all?”

How to Align AI with KAIZEN™ for Maximum Impact

1. Start with Value Stream Mapping (VSM) to Identify Waste

AI works best when processes are clean, structured, and standardized. Before implementing AI, businesses should:

• Map workflows from end to end – Identify where value is created and where bottlenecks occur
• Pinpoint waste – Look for delays, unnecessary approvals, or manual rework
• Fix inefficiencies first – Remove non-value-adding steps before automating

For example, instead of automating a slow approval process, redesign it first to eliminate unnecessary steps.

2. Prioritize AI Investments Where Lean Has Already Improved Efficiency

AI should be an enabler of continuous improvement, not a shortcut.

• Predictive maintenance works best when data collection is already optimized
• Automated workflows should be applied to standardized, waste-free processes
• Real-time demand forecasting requires clean, reliable input data

For example, AI-driven forecasting only works if the underlying inventory system is already optimized.

3. Involve Employees in AI Adoption

AI isn’t just a technology shift—it’s a workforce transformation. Companies should:

• Involve teams in the AI discussion to ensure alignment with real needs
• Reskill employees to make AI augmentation a productivity booster, not a threat
• Use AI to reduce low-value tasks so employees can focus on problem-solving and innovation

For example, a company that used AI to generate compliance reports freed employees to focus on process improvements instead.

KAIZEN™ + AI = A Winning Formula

• AI is not a standalone solution—it works best when paired with Lean thinking
• Companies that start with KAIZEN™ transformations ensure AI is applied where it truly creates value
• The best AI investments happen where waste has already been eliminated