Where Process Intelligence Is Heading: 5 Questions with Gary Chitan of TOCH Consulting

Gary Chitan has spent more than 20 years working where process management, data management and business transformation meet, with organisations such as Novartis, Barclays and Nestlé. Today he leads TOCH Consulting, a QPR partner focused on Process Intelligence. We asked him five questions about how the field is changing, what AI means for it and what organisations should think about before choosing a platform.

1. What has changed most in Process Mining and Process Intelligence over the past few years

Gary: For me, the biggest change is that Process Mining has stopped being only a discovery tool and has started becoming a context layer between data, process and action.

In its earlier years, it was mostly used by specialist teams to produce process maps, identify variants and check compliance. That was valuable, but it tended to stay inside the improvement team. The output was an analysis, not a management tool.

Three things have changed that. Organisations are centralising their operational data on modern data platforms, so we can look at processes end to end rather than one system at a time. We can connect process behaviour directly to financial outcomes and ask not just where a process is slow, but how much cash is trapped there and what it is costing us. And AI has made context the critical issue, because something has to show how work actually flows, where AI should intervene and whether it is making a difference.

That is how I distinguish the two terms. Process Mining is the technique for reconstructing how processes actually run from transactional data. Process Intelligence is the capability built on top of it, turning that picture into context that people, and increasingly AI, can use to make better decisions

2. Where do dashboards fall short when leaders need to understand how work actually flows?

Gary: I actually see dashboards and Process Intelligence as complementary rather than competing.

For me, the dashboard is the primary triage. It gives management the vital signs of the organisation: revenue, margins, lead times, service levels, working capital, capacity. It tells you that something has changed or that something isn't performing as expected. What it doesn't necessarily tell you is what is happening underneath the number.

That is where Process Intelligence acts as the secondary triage. Once the dashboard points you in a direction, you can follow the process across systems and teams and understand what is actually happening. Process Mining is particularly powerful here because it uses transactional event data to reconstruct how the process actually flows, rather than relying on the KPI or on how people believe the process works. That supports deeper analysis and root-cause investigation.

The first triage tells you where the problem is. The second helps you understand why it is happening and what needs to change. Once the organisation has taken corrective action, Process Intelligence can also show whether the intervention is actually improving performance. For me, that is the progression from monitoring performance to managing the performance of the process.

3. How is AI changing what organisations expect from Process Intelligence?

Gary: I think AI is forcing organisations to confront one fundamental issue: context.

We've seen AI projects stall because the data isn't ready or the technology isn't connected to how the business actually operates. Data readiness is a real issue, but the market won't wait for organisations to get everything perfect. Most organisations already have transactional data that can tell us a huge amount about how the business operates. Process Mining lets us use that data now to identify gaps, bottlenecks and the places where AI could create value, and it gives us a blueprint for what needs to change over time.

Data alone doesn't tell you what to do, though. Human expertise is still needed to ask the right questions, understand the business and turn those insights into practical AI opportunities. That is where I see Process Intelligence evolving: helping organisations move from "Where can we use AI?" to "Where can AI create measurable value in our processes?", and then proving whether it actually did.

AI doesn't need perfect conditions. It needs context, expertise, direction and measurement.

4. Why has TOCH chosen to work with QPR ProcessAnalyzer?

Gary: For me, it comes down to experience, architecture, vision and commercial value.

QPR has worked in process management for decades, across hundreds of customer engagements, and that experience is reflected in the product. QPR ProcessAnalyzer is designed around real business and process challenges rather than being an intellectual exercise in process modelling.

The architecture matters to me because I believe platforms should follow the data rather than dictate where it lives. For organisations on Snowflake, QPR ProcessAnalyzer runs natively, so the analysis works directly with the data where it already resides, without moving or duplicating it. That brings significant advantages for security and governance. Organisations that are not on Snowflake can use QPR's hosted Snowflake instance or deploy it on their own data management platform.

QPR's recognition as a Visionary in the 2026 Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for Process Intelligence Platforms, for the fourth consecutive year, also matters. It suggests a company with a clear view of where Process Intelligence is going, particularly its role in AI and operational context, rather than one simply following the market.

And finally, there is the commercial model. TOCH is deliberately a different type of consultancy. I want to deliver senior expertise and measurable business value without building large teams or creating unnecessary technology costs for clients. QPR gives me a platform I can deploy in that model, with a cost structure that makes the economics of Process Intelligence much easier to justify.

5. What advice would you give to an organisation evaluating Process Intelligence in 2026?

Gary: Organisations generally understand how to evaluate software functionality, and that remains important. Where they can struggle is evaluating what happens beyond the software. How does Process Intelligence fit into the wider enterprise architecture, alongside Business Intelligence, data management, process management and existing process documentation? Where does it sit alongside AI and automation? These capabilities shouldn't become another set of disconnected tools.

So I would evaluate Process Intelligence on two levels: does the software have the functionality you need, and does the capability have a clear role in your enterprise architecture? Getting the first right gives you a good platform. Getting both right gives you the potential to create business value.

About Gary Chitan
Gary Chitan is Founder of TOCH Consulting, with more than 20 years' experience in Process Management, Data Management and business transformation across supply chain, manufacturing, retail, banking and pharmaceuticals. He has worked with organisations including Novartis, Barclays and Nestlé, helping businesses turn process and data into measurable operational improvement. Today, Gary focuses on Process Intelligence, helping leadership teams uncover inefficiency, quantify its business impact and turn insight into action.

Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Process Intelligence, Tushar Srivastava, Marc Kerremans, David Sugden, 5 May, 2026
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