Don't Just Automate—Validate: How Task Mining Proves AI's ROI

The AI boom has everyone rushing to automate, but how do you know if your investment is actually paying off? Without objective data, AI projects are a leap of faith. Process discovery especially task mining can provide a reality check.

What Can Task Mining Do:

It's the right technology that provides a "before-and-after" picture of your processes.

The 'Before' Snapshot: First, it watches and measures your current workflows to create a data-backed baseline. On top of that, it can capture the hidden inefficiencies in the process - like manual re-work, or undocumented shortcuts - that a flowchart or a side-by-side manual process discovery can never do.

The 'After' Proof: Once you deploy your AI solution - you can re-observe the process, while measuring the same metrics and get a data-backed snapshot of the process. Task mining can provide you a gateway into 'reality of work', which will enable you to look for the 'actual' behavior of your front line employee - not a 'notional' SOP. This new baseline, post your AI solution deployment, can truly help validate the on-ground reality in terms of the utilization improvement.

Quantify Time Savings: Did the average handling time actually decrease? Did your front line employee save the 'x seconds' they were supposed to because of your AI solution. This quantification becomes possible due to 'before' and 'after' snapshots which can be compared on the same employee's performance over a given duration of time.

Track Adoption: Did the average handling time stay the same because your employee wasn't actually leveraging the new AI solution you deployed? Was the employee engaging with the solution in the 'expected' way. Is it a training issue, or is your AI solution not effective? Task Mining metrics can enable you to track whether the solution is getting adopted or are there workarounds still taking place; by simply providing the 'telemetry' of the process post the solution.

True value of ROI: Finally, the data captured by task mining softwares post AI implementation, can help you calculate the 'real time savings', specific to your solution. In other words, you have a real proof to back up your business case.

Example: Imagine a call center before and after a company installs an AI chatbot solution. Management thinks they’re saving 3 minutes per call, but task mining uncovers the real story. Agents’ AHT has gone down, but the task mining data reveals that during those 3 minutes saved, they are now spending 2 manually double-checking the chatbot’s responses. Management knows the AI is working, but now has specific data on where to focus optimization efforts.

Task mining turns opinions into numbers, proving that your AI is not just a shiny new tool, but a source of real, measurable value.