Phi-Lean.ai · True Lean software automation
Phi-Core plugs specialised AI agents into the tools your company already uses: e-mail, calendar, CRM, ERP, accounting. They prepare the work, you approve it, it goes out. And before plugging anything in, we look at how work really flows in your company.
A quote request, on a Tuesday evening
Phi-Core plugs into the tools an SME already uses, puts specialised AI agents to work and hands back results ready to use. You validate before anything goes out.
Triggers when something happens
Phi-Core the engine and its agents
Outputs what lands on your desk
Triggers when something happens
Phi-Core the engine and its agents
Connects your apps · runs the agents · delivers
Human in the loop: you validate before anything goes out.
Outputs what lands on your desk
In practice four flows an SME can switch on
The Kano model separates what customers take for granted, what satisfies them more the better you do, and what delights them. Over time, delighters become basics. Quote response time is making that journey, fast.
Quote response time
Before 2025
A few days
Performance
2026
A few hours
Delighter
2027
A few hours, even minutes
Basic
Phi-Lean projection, based on the Kano model (Kano et al., 1984).
After M. Gourmand, “The Systemic Attrition Spiral”, Phi-Lean Press, 2026
55%
of large European companies used AI in 2025, against 17% of small ones.
Eurostat, 2025, companies with 10+ employees, EU-27
Plugging AI into a broken flow just makes your defects faster. So the diagnostic starts on the ground, with your teams: people and flow first, and only then AI, where it really pays back.
01
Map
the processes, on the ground
02
Remove
the waste, release capacity
03
Target
where AI will really pay back
04
Plan
the AI roadmap
Then one flow at a time: the first one live, measured, then the next.
Past revolutions, from robotics to the Internet, show three recurring mistakes.
After M. Gourmand (2026), “The Systemic Attrition Spiral”, Phi-Lean Press.
Our flow analysis method, on phi-lean.comTypical scenarios, built from situations we meet in small and mid-sized companies: a dental practice, a travel agency, a kitchen retailer, a workshop. Yours will start from your flow.
Dental practice
WhatsApp message, e-mail or website form, what comes out: Reply to the patient with three slots suited to the reason for the visit
< 5 mintarget reply time, 7 days a week
Language travel agency
Quote request on the website or by e-mail, what comes out: Quote in the agency’s house style, as a PDF
1 htarget time for a complete quote
Kitchen retailer
Appointment booked in the calendar, what comes out: One-page project brief, an hour before the appointment
Same dayvisit report and quote draft on the day of the visit
Accounting firm
Document sent to the client’s address or dropped in its shared folder, what comes out: Document renamed, filed in the right folder, logged in the tracker
On the 5threminders ready, client by client
Industrial subcontractor
Purchase order received by e-mail, what comes out: Order pre-entered in the ERP
< 1 htarget reply time to a status request
Building materials distributor
Invoice received at the accounts-payable address, what comes out: Invoice pre-entered in accounting, linked to its order
1 clickto approve a matching invoice
Production workshop
Stoppage detected by production monitoring, or reported by scanning the machine’s QR code, what comes out: Alert to the on-call technician, with the last interventions on that machine
10 sto report a stoppage
Building engineering firm
Every morning at 7 a.m.: new public tender notices, what comes out: One-page decision sheet for each relevant notice
10 minto decide whether to bid
Independent hotel
New review notification (Google, Booking, Tripadvisor), what comes out: Reply in the guest’s language and the house tone
24 htarget time to answer every review
SME owner
Every Monday at 7 a.m., what comes out: One page: revenue, order book, margin, cash, delays
1 pageevery Monday at 7 a.m.
In 2024, Air Canada was ordered to compensate a passenger whose chatbot had announced a refund rule that did not exist. The airline argued the chatbot was a separate entity; the tribunal disagreed. What an AI says on your behalf commits you: that is why nothing goes out without you.
CBS News, 19 February 2024; Moffatt v. Air Canada, 2024 BCCRT 149.
Human validation before sending
Every quote, reply or entry is put to you ready to go; you approve, adjust or reject.
Hosted in Europe (GDPR)
Your flows run on infrastructure hosted in Europe, in line with the GDPR.
Your data stays yours
It serves your work and nothing else. You decide what is kept.
Your tools, not ours
Phi-Core plugs into what you already use. No migration, no new software to learn.
Tick what sounds like your company, or that of a business owner you know.
Tick the signs that apply.
Talk about it
Phi-Lean.ai is the automation platform of Phi-Lean, the firm founded by Manuel Gourmand: ENIM engineer, MSc Lean Enterprise from the University of Buckingham, fifteen years in operations and supply chain in France, the UK, the Netherlands, Brazil and the United States. Here, flow consulting and technology talk to each other.
Discover the firm on phi-lean.com LinkedIn (opens in a new tab)
Thirty minutes is often enough to spot the flow that will pay back most, and what needs fixing before any AI is plugged in. No commitment.
