Bank Automation News explores the latest automation of observation-based software.

Cognitive process mining: The science of using AI technologies in data mining software to track events and produce insights. Financial institutions can use the tech to determine efficient business practices and systems to be optimized via automation.

In George Orwell’s novel “1984,” Big Brother constantly surveilles the nation’s citizens. For today’s workforce, the concept of computer surveillance brings up real concerns of personal privacy infringement.

However, AI observation-based software provider Skan is looking to recast observation-based software in a new light, and provide employers an innovative yet passive way to oversee employee workflows.

Skan’s software observes patterns in a company’s business processes, offering insights based on the variants it detects. The information gleaned can be used to identify areas ripe for automation — invoice processing and other back-end technologies, for example.

Citi Ventures, Citibank’s venture investment firm, invested in the San Jose, Calif.-based fintech last October, funneling $14 million into the AI software.

“Skan is creating a cognitive process discovery and operational intelligence platform that provides strong analytical visibility into end-to-end processes,” Matt Carbonara, Citi Ventures’ managing director of venture investing, recently told BAN.

Learning where to automate is key for many business owners, according to Skan CEO and Co-founder Avinash Misra. “What are the repetition tasks that people are doing? This serves as a tool for discovering where you should apply automation or, for that matter, there may be a process in which other interventions may be needed.”

For instance, Misra said, the data that comes back can be utilized to observe where employees need retraining or where different software would be more efficient.

To avoid Big Brother worries, Skan utilizes technology that monitors an employee’s time and efficiency on a company software, and stops the monitoring when the employee disengages with the company system, to protect the individual’s privacy.

“A Big Brother would be set up to watch every action,” Misra said, “the way we are set up is that we force the process owners to specify what business-related applications people would be working on,” adding that only data from those applications would be available.

Moving forward, Skan’s roadmap does not have any detours. Instead of pivoting to evaluate consumer website views or page clicks, the fintech is focused primarily on integrating the next level of AI-driven supervisory of work processes, Misra added. “We want to be able to allow people to work even easier. If they’re doing a task, can the AI predict that’s going to be the next step?”

Process discovery can fuel the growth of a company, Carbonara said. “Enterprises will be able to visualize all the processes through their business and identify ways to drive simplification, standardization, operational efficiency and improve data quality upstream issues while also identifying automation opportunities.”

Skan is not alone in the process-discovery space. Competitors like AssistEdge, an EdgeVerve company, likewise track application usage and offer productivity advice through AI-enabled software. AssistEdge’s features are condensed in the India-based fintech’s RPA platform, which can be further used to design automation bots.

Cognitive process mining Do’s and Don’ts

• DO: Seek out opportunities to monitor employee program usage safely, prioritizing personal security. In a growing digital landscape, finding cracks in the workplace foundation is imperative, but employees must also always feel comfortable at their computers.
• DO: Seek out new and innovative ways to automate formerly manual systems, allowing a company to flourish by dedicating employee time to where it is needed most.
• DO: Invigorate back-end systems. Taking care of customers is a priority in the financial industry, but it is equally important to ensure employees are working efficiently and with dynamic digital software.
• DON’T: Work with a software and Big Brother-type data that does not provide insights into how to generate a better workflow.
• DON’T: Use the data provided by cognitive process mining software for reasons other than to maximize automation opportunities.