At the recent Celosphere event, I spoke with Kerry Brown, Transformation Evangelist at Celonis, who detailed how process mining enables trustworthy, data-driven AI in the enterprise—especially as organizations ramp toward agentic AI.She explained how digital twins bring transparency, how KPIs reveal measurable value, why governance builds confidence in automation, and why empathy and storytelling remain essential as AI reshapes work. Brown also offered a forecast about where process intelligence is leading, including the rapid expansion of enterprise AI use cases.

Main Takeaways

• • Process mining creates visibility. Digital twins give leaders a multi-view sense of their operations, enabling transparent and precise decision-making.

• • KPIs reveal measurable value. Cost reduction, speed to market, rework elimination, and opportunity value all demonstrate the concrete ROI of process intelligence.

• • Governance builds trust in agentic AI. Real-time transparency and a crawl-walk-run approach allow organizations to safely scale automation.

• • Empathy drives successful AI adoption. Storytelling, clarity, and addressing employee fears help teams embrace AI rather than resist it.

Key Quotes

“Process mining gives leaders transparent, data-driven decision power.”

“When you look at decisions around AI or process improvement, that digital twin is giving you a visualization at whatever level of granularity you want. It lets you step back for a 30,000-foot view or drill all the way down to the 10-foot view so you can make informed, transparent, data-driven decisions.”

“KPIs show the real value—cost savings, speed, and opportunity.”

“You can measure the cost of the work, the cost of rework, and the time saved by eliminating it. For companies like Pfizer, the KPI isn’t only dollars—it’s how much more quickly they can get lifesaving products to market. That opportunity is a value KPI in itself.”

“Governance and trust come from transparency and gradual automation.”

“You can drill down to every transaction in real or near-real time, so nothing is hidden. Organizations move through opportunities, validate them, automate, then scale. As confidence grows, the governance proves itself, and agentic AI can function without constant human oversight.”

“Empathy helps people feel included—not replaced—by AI.”

“People don’t want to waste time; they want to do useful work. Being empathetic means acknowledging fear, uncertainty, and lack of trust. When employees understand what’s happening and feel included in the journey, AI becomes a helpful partner rather than a threat. That builds confidence, reduces resistance, and helps everyone find where they fit.”