Celonis Research Unveils: 89% of Business Leaders say AI Without Process Intelligence Fails to Deliver Expected Results

The vast majority of decision makers surveyed (89%) said AI needs to have the context of how their business runs to deliver the expected results.

81% of respondents said their companies plan to use AI specifically to improve business processes in the next 12 months.

The majority (58%) of leaders worry that process shortcomings may limit AI’s contribution to their business.

MUNICH and NEW YORK, February 5, 2025 – Celonis, the global leader in Process Mining and Process Intelligence, today released survey findings that demonstrate widespread recognition that AI requires Process Intelligence to be effective and relevant for the business. With Celonis Process Intelligence, AI gains the context it needs to understand how a business runs and how to make it run better.

The 2025 Process Optimization Report shows that the vast majority of enterprise leaders (89%) say it’s crucial that AI has the context of how their business runs if it is going to deliver meaningful results and increase operational efficiency. The majority (58%) worry that shortcomings in their processes may hinder AI’s effectiveness. The responses from over 1,600 global leaders underscore the critical role Process Intelligence plays in ensuring AI provides actionable insights, suggests impactful recommendations, and takes effective actions.

Key survey findings: Process Intelligence as the foundational enabler of AI

Nearly all enterprises are deploying AI, with only 1% of the business leaders surveyed saying they’re not. AI expectations are high for the year ahead and leaders recognize that effective AI and processes are intrinsically linked.

• 89% of leaders believe AI must understand how their business processes run to deliver effective results.

• 81% of companies plan to use AI specifically to improve business processes in the next 12 months.

• 74% of respondents say their AI budgets are increasing.

• 64% of respondents believe AI will deliver significant ROI.

• 61% of businesses report that AI applications like GenAI chatbots and assistants are already being deployed to enhance operational efficiency.

• 58% of leaders worry that process inefficiencies could limit the value they achieve from AI initiatives.

“AI agents need to be process aware - just like a GPS needs a map”, said Alex Rinke, co-founder and co-CEO of Celonis. “The survey results clearly demonstrate that business leaders recognize that there’s no effective AI without Process Intelligence. Our platform, powered by the Process Intelligence Graph, provides enterprise AI the data and context it needs to be truly game-changing.”

How Celonis enables effective enterprise AI

Celonis platform feeds AI agents with unique multi-system and system-independent process intelligence allowing them to make accurate decisions, suggest impactful recommendations, and take appropriate actions.

At Celosphere 2024, Celonis announced AgentC—a suite of AI agent tools, integrations, and partnerships that enables the Celonis community to use prebuilt AI agents or develop AI agents in the leading AI agent platforms powered by Celonis Process Intelligence.

Celonis’ role in enterprise AI has been validated by analysts and enterprise customers alike. Gartner named Celonis a leader in its 2024 Magic Quadrant™ for Process Mining Platforms, citing its ability to provide businesses with system-agnostic process insights enriched with AI-driven capabilities. Celonis also ranks 13 on Forbes 2024 Cloud 100 list, which recognizes the world’s leading private cloud companies in the areas of AI, software, infrastructure, security, and more.

How to effective enterprise AI boosts productivity and profitability

To learn more about the strategies business leaders are using to optimize their processes, download the full report from https://www.celonis.com/processreport/. Along with the data shared here, the report contains information on how leaders are boosting productivity with automation, what’s limiting their ability to fully understand their processes, and which methods they’re using to gain process visibility. Four department-specific reports are also available for Finance and Shared Services, Supply Chain, Process and Operations, and IT.

Survey methodology

To create the 2025 Process Optimization Report, Celonis worked with an independent B2B and technology research consultancy to conduct 1,620 interviews with business leaders during July and August 2024. Respondents came from organizations with revenue of $500m+ and were spread across Australia, Austria, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Switzerland, the UK, and the US. All the leaders work in either Finance and Shared Services, Supply Chain, IT and Digital, or Process Improvement and Operations departments.

About Celonis

Celonis makes processes work for people, companies, and the planet. The Celonis Process Intelligence Platform, powered by process mining and AI, combines process data and business context to create a living digital twin of the enterprise, connecting people to processes, teams to each other, and AI to the business. Thousands of companies worldwide, including half of the top 200 companies on the Forbes Global 2000, use Celonis to understand their business, optimize operations and drive significant value across the top, bottom, and green lines. Celonis is headquartered in Munich, Germany, and New York City, USA, with more than 20 offices worldwide.

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