Everyone’s chasing AI. Few are ready for it.
Everyone wants AI. Every boardroom wants to sound “innovative.” Every investor wants to hear “AI strategy.” The problem? Most companies don’t actually know how their work gets done. They only think they do.
That’s why Agentic AI — or any AI — fails before it starts.
Forrester agrees — most AI failures start with fantasy data. They’re trained on how work should happen, not how it does. Process Intelligence brings that reality check.
The Corporate AI Rush
The AI arms race is on. Companies are wiring AI into chatbots, reports, and workflows faster than they can spell “governance.”
But AI doesn’t work in theory. It works in context.
Without context, even the smartest model becomes a liability. It automates confusion, accelerates errors, and generates insights that sound right but aren’t.
AI can’t fix what you can’t see.
That’s where most digital transformations derail — not from lack of ambition, but lack of visibility.
The Visibility Problem
Agentic AI acts on how work actually happens — not how the org chart says it should. That means it needs real visibility into your processes.
Most companies don’t have that. They have documentation. They have opinions. But they don’t have facts.
If you can’t trace how a purchase order, claim, or loan moves from “start” to “done,” AI can’t either. It will happily optimize the wrong thing — faster.
That’s how chaos gets automated.
Forrester found that Process Intelligence can rescue 30% of failed AI projects — simply by grounding agents in operational truth. 1
Enter Process Intelligence
Process Intelligence is not a new buzzword. It’s the missing layer between your business and your AI ambitions.
It combines process mining, modeling, simulation, governance, root cause analysis, and predictive analytics — revealing how your business truly operates.
It’s not optional tooling. It’s the foundation for trustworthy AI.
In short:
- Mining shows what’s happening.
- Modeling defines how it should happen.
- Simulation tests what could happen.
- Governance ensures it happens correctly.
- Analytics predicts what will happen next.
That’s not theory. That’s control.
And AI without control? Chaos with a user interface.
AI is the Rocket. Process Intelligence is the Launchpad.
Think of AI as a rocket. Tremendous power. Tremendous risk. Without a launchpad — data, visibility, structure — it doesn’t lift off. It explodes.
Process Intelligence is that launchpad. It stabilizes, aligns, and directs your AI efforts so they actually reach orbit — safely.
No launchpad, no lift-off.
The Maturity Path: From Digitalization to Autonomy
You can’t jump straight to Agentic AI. There’s a progression:
- Digitalization – You move from paper to systems
- Intelligence – You start understanding those systems through mining and modeling.
- Automation – You let AI and RPA handle repeatable work.
- Autonomy – You reach Agentic AI, where systems make decisions based on real process understanding.
Most companies are still between Step 1 and Step 2 but already shopping for Step 4. That’s like buying a jet before learning to drive.
Skipping the Foundation
When you skip Process Intelligence, bad things happen fast:
- Automation amplifies weak processes.
- Decisions become unexplainable.
- Compliance falls apart.
- Customers feel the chaos before you see it.
That’s not transformation. That’s turbulence.
The companies winning with AI aren’t moving fastest — they’re building smartest.
Start with “Process Readiness”
Before building your AI roadmap, check your foundation.
- Do you know how workflows across systems and people?
- Can you simulate the impact of a change?
- Can you predict outcomes based on real data?
If not, you’re not ready for AI. You’re ready for Process Intelligence.
Analysts now call Process Intelligence the prerequisite for autonomous operations — the North Star for AI-driven transformation.
Agentic AI will change business forever — but only for those who can see, measure, and manage how work really happens.
Start there.
1 Source: Forrester, “Predictions 2026: Automation and Robotics,” October 21, 2025.