Task Mining vs. Process Mining: Key Differences and Use Cases

Introduction

If you’re leading an automation or transformation initiative at an enterprise, chances are you have considered or invested in process mining. But even with the best process mining dashboards in place, most teams still struggle to explain how work is actually completed end-to-end: why workarounds exist, where processes break down, and what the manual steps really are.

That’s because most enterprise processes don’t live inside a single system or ERP, and yet that’s where most companies start looking.

Process mining helps you analyze structured workflows inside platforms like SAP, Salesforce, and Oracle. But what about the copy-paste work between systems? The spreadsheet steps? The exceptions and workarounds that employees handle manually every day?

Without full visibility, businesses also risk non-compliance. Manual steps and workarounds can lead to inconsistent handling of sensitive data or missed audit trails – problems that traditional process mining won’t catch.

That’s where task mining comes in – and why it belongs alongside process mining in every transformation team’s toolkit.

If you want to uncover automation opportunities and process improvements, look where the work actually happens – across the desktop of the users actually completing the work. Process mining shows you a slice; task mining shows you everything. Learn why leading enterprises are starting with task mining.

What is task mining?

Task mining is a technology that captures how employees interact with software – across any application, any system, and any team – to reveal exactly how work is performed.

By recording user activity, such as clicks and keystrokes, on the desktop, task mining provides a granular, end-to-end view of workflows that often span dozens of tools. This includes everything from CRM lookups and Excel manipulation to approvals in email and task routing in legacy platforms.

Want to dig deeper? Read our full blog on what task mining is and how it works.

Why start with task mining?

• Deploys quickly – for tools like Mimica, it’s a simple download with no system integration required
• Captures manual workarounds that aren’t visible in system-based logs
• Generates a complete as-is process map, capturing and analyzing fragmented, cross-system workflows
• Discovers hidden inefficiencies and prioritizes improvements based on impact, cost savings, automatability, and ease of deployment

Whether you’re kicking off an automation program or mapping a process for the first time, task mining gives you the foundation to do it right – with real data, not assumptions.

What is process mining?

Process mining analyzes event logs from enterprise systems – like SAP, Salesforce, or ServiceNow – to reconstruct how a process flows within that system. It creates a visual map of what’s happening based on structured data: timestamps, case IDs, and actions recorded in the system.

It’s powerful, but limited. Process mining only shows you what happens inside a single system. It can’t see the steps before, after, or in between – and it can’t capture manual tasks, workarounds, or cross-system activities that occur on the desktop. For example, in procure-to-pay, process mining can show purchase order approval steps in SAP, but it won’t capture the back-and-forth over email or the Excel checks that happen before submission.

Limitations of process mining:

• Requires custom integration with a single system, which can take up to six months
• Relies solely on system logs, missing cross-system and manual work
• Overlooks ad hoc and exception-based tasks that vary by team or region
• Assumes a well-defined process, missing key steps in the reality of day-to-day workflows 

What's the difference between task mining vs. process mining?

An easy way to remember the distinction is that task mining focuses on the front end – what people actually do on their desktops – while process mining focuses on the back end, the digital breadcrumbs left behind in enterprise systems.

Task mining helps you understand how work really happens across applications. Process mining, on the other hand, gives you a high-level view of what happens inside structured systems like ERPs and CRMs.

The table below offers a quick snapshot of the key differences between task mining and process mining.

Bottom line: Task mining gives you the fastest, most complete path to understanding how work is really done.

Curious how task mining and process mining can work together? Explore our blog: “Already Using Process Mining? Here’s Why You Need Task Mining.”

Enterprise use cases that task mining supports

Processes are messy. They cross systems, teams, and tools – and they rarely follow a straight line.

That’s why more Fortune 500 companies are starting their process improvement efforts with task mining.

Unlike process mining, which only sees what’s captured in a system’s event logs, task mining captures what actually happens on the desktop – across every application in use.

These companies are discovering:

• Bottlenecks and inefficiencies between systems
• Manual, repetitive steps not captured in structured data
• Automation opportunities hidden from process mining

Process mining gives you a rearview mirror of how a system behaved. Task mining puts you in the driver’s seat.

Fortune 100 Insurance Provider: Unlocked $24M in productivity gains

Problem: Claims, policy updates, and customer service tasks were slowed by hidden manual workflows in Excel, Outlook, and internal portals.
Solution: Task mining revealed automatable tasks and opportunities to streamline handoffs and reduce duplication.
Outcome: The company unlocked $24 million in productivity gains. 

Fortune 500 Car Rental Company: Cut call times by 31%

Problem: Contact center agents spent most of their time manually searching for reservations and calculating extension costs.
Solution: Task mining uncovered the inefficiencies and led to software updates that automated lookup and estimation.
Outcome: Call times on rental extensions were reduced by 31%.

Merck: Achieved 20% of annual cost reduction target in one month

Problem: Merck’s Account-to-Report (AtR) team was bogged down by hundreds of manual tasks during month-end close.
Solution: Task mining identified unnecessary tasks to eliminate and others to automate.
Outcome: They hit 20% of their annual GBS cost reduction goal in just one month. 

Fortune 100 Biotechnology Company: Improved service capacity without adding headcount

Problem: Customer service leaders suspected agents were working outside the ERP, reducing efficiency.
Solution: Task mining confirmed the issue and uncovered opportunities for upstream automation and AI-driven improvements.
Outcome: The team increased service capacity without increasing headcount.

For transformation leaders, it’s no longer a question of whether to use task mining – it’s when. And the most forward-thinking organizations are starting there.

Video case study: Merck

Merck, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, used task mining to uncover automation opportunities that process mining missed in a complex, multi-system process. Before investing in automation, the team needed to understand what their employees were actually doing across dozens of tools – from SAP to Outlook to custom databases.

What they discovered:

• Repetitive manual tasks hidden between systems
• Workflow steps not logged anywhere
• Clear opportunities for automation

"Without task mining, we’d have never seen how much time was spent just navigating between tools. It was eye-opening." Steve Carpenter, Executive Director of GBS at Merck

Task mining didn’t just help Merck map the work – it helped them act on it. In this exclusive session from the PEX Network’s All Access: Process Intelligence and Process Mining 2025 event, learn how Merck’s Global Business Services team used AI-driven task mining to uncover inefficiencies and save thousands of team hours. Watch the full webinar: Merck + Mimica | Why task mining fills the crucial gaps in process mining.

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What is task mining’s role in a Center of Excellence (CoE)?

Mimica’s customers are on the cutting edge of enterprise process transformation – and many have built world-class Centers of Excellence (CoEs) within their organizations that combine task mining and process mining to accelerate strategic initiatives.

Start with task mining when:

• You need to discover how a process really works
• The process spans multiple systems or apps
• You're identifying automation opportunities
• System data is incomplete or unavailable

Once task mining reveals what’s happening across the desktop, process mining can be layered in to validate and monitor structured flows inside core systems.

Use process mining when:

• You're working within a single system (e.g., SAP)
• You want to analyze throughput and conformance
• The process is already well-defined

Together, these tools create a complete feedback loop – from discovery to design to continuous improvement. And when combined under a shared CoE, they deliver serious ROI. On average, Mimica customers identify $10-50 million in full-time equivalent (FTE) savings by uncovering hidden work, eliminating waste, and accelerating automation. Read more on how a CoE is structured and how projects are selected.

Why task mining is crucial for process optimization

In a world of fragmented systems and hybrid work, starting with process mining means starting with blind spots. Task mining captures the entire story – every application, every user, every step. It delivers:

• Faster time to value with zero-disruption setup
• Insights in weeks, not months
• Immediate blueprints for automation development
• Real-world impact – including millions in savings and measurable productivity gains

Whether you’re automating, improving, or simply trying to understand how things get done, task mining is the clearest lens you can use.

Request a free 14-day proof of concept from Mimica to surface and analyze the hidden work across your enterprise that process mining won't show you.