Taxonomy XPLR
Overview
Taxonomy XPLR is an exploration and classification module in ZBrain XPLR that supports ideation by mapping GenAI solution opportunities across a detailed enterprise process hierarchy. It helps users understand where AI can be applied by organizing potential solutions under functional domains, processes, sub-processes, and task-level details. It allows users to explore, compare, assess, and select GenAI solutions mapped to enterprise processes.
It’s designed for both wide-scope exploration and precise targeting, supporting strategic transformation as well as micro-level process improvements.
Significance of Taxonomy XPLR
Taxonomy XPLR is designed to support structured exploration of AI use cases across business domains. It supports two key ideation methods used in enterprises:
Top-down thinking: Starting from broad functions like marketing or finance and narrowing down to specific workflows.
Bottom-up discovery: Starting from a known problem (e.g., how credit reviews are done today) and finding relevant AI use cases at the step level.
It ensures users don’t miss viable solutions, whether they’re assessing a full department or one specific task. Overall, taxonomy XPLR allows users to navigate categorized process groups—such as front office, mid office, and back office—view solution opportunities at a granular process level, and understand the distribution of solution types based on their potential impact.
Using Taxonomy XPLR – A step-by-step walkthrough
Taxonomy vs. diagram view
In the top-right of the screen, you can toggle between two modes of process exploration:
Taxonomy: This is the default view, showing categorized process groups with GenAI solution counts across impact levels (Breakthrough, transformative, incremental). It allows structured exploration by function.
Diagrams: This view provides visual workflow maps of sub-processes. It is useful for understanding solutions in the context of how work actually flows.
Using the taxonomy view
1. Use the search bar or explore by function
You can begin in two ways:
Use the search process bar to type in a keyword (e.g., “credit review” or “campaign management”) to jump directly to relevant processes.
Or, manually explore the taxonomy by navigating through the three enterprise categories:
Front office: Marketing, services, sales, investment, deprecated
Mid office: Supply chain
Back office: Finance, HR, IT, procurement
2. Browse the process hierarchy
Each category unfolds into deeper levels for precise exploration:
Function (e.g., Marketing)
Sub-function (e.g., Strategy-to-execution)
Micro-function (e.g., Marketing communications)
Task-level process (e.g., Campaign and program management, lead development)
You can track where you are through the breadcrumb trail at the top, which looks like the following:
Front office/ marketing/ strategy-to-execution/ marketing communications
For each function or sub-function, you can see a box summarizing:
Gen AI solution: Total number of AI solution ideas mapped to that function or process. These solutions are further categorized into:
Breakthrough: Solutions that provide significant operational improvements or new capabilities.
Transformative: Solutions that fundamentally change how the business function operates.
Incremental: Solutions that provide moderate gains through automation or efficiency.
This gives you an idea of how much potential there is for automation or AI-driven optimization in each area.
Under every process area (function, sub-function, micro-function, or task-level process), there’s a clickable ‘AI solutions’ button. Clicking this opens a filtered list from the GenAI solution library, showing only solutions relevant to the selected process and categorized as breakthrough, transformative, or incremental based on their level of impact.
3. Review individual solution entries
Clicking on any solution from the filtered list will open a solution details overview window. This is a detailed view designed to give a complete understanding of the selected AI solution. It includes:
Impact (Incremental, transformative, breakthrough)
Overview of what the solution does
Data requirements, listing required data types and sources
Implementation considerations, including system integration, training, and compliance factors
Top benefits across dimensions like revenue growth, productivity, customer experience, and cost savings
AI agents & tools involved, with roles marked as essential or optional
Users can click on the ‘+ Add to solution XPLR’ button to move this solution into their customized solution canvas. They can also click on the star button to save it to 'My favorite AI solutions' for future reference.
4. Open diagrams at the granular level
Once you’ve reached the final layer (e.g., Lead development), you’ll see a ‘Diagram’ button next to the ‘AI solutions’ link. Clicking this opens a workflow diagram showing:
How the current process typically works
Where GenAI agents could be inserted
How would automation or augmentation impact the flow
This helps visualize operational impact before committing to simulations or deployment.
Using the diagram view
While the taxonomy view supports structured exploration through categorized lists, the diagram view enables process-level ideation through visual workflows. It’s useful for understanding where AI solutions apply within the actual flow of enterprise tasks.
To access this view, click the ‘Diagram’ toggle in the top-right corner of the ‘Taxonomy XPLR’ page.
1. Search or explore by function
Similar to the ‘Taxonomy’ view, you can begin in two ways:
Use the search bar to directly find a process (e.g., “Customer service”).
Or, manually browse by function, starting from these enterprise-level categories: Front office, mid office and back office.
Once you've narrowed down the search to the most granular level and selected a specific sub-process, the interface will display a workflow diagram for that task or sub-process. These diagrams represent commonly adopted operational flows which is universal in most corporate settings.
2. Understand the diagram interface
The diagram interface provides a visual breakdown of how work is performed within the selected process. You’ll see a breadcrumb trail at the top left that shows the navigation path. Clicking the edit (pen) icon next to it opens metadata related to the diagram.
At the top right corner of the interface, a series of interactive buttons is available for further exploration. These buttons are:
Add to Solution XPLR: 'Add to Solution XPLR' now enables seamless transfer of selected processes from Taxonomy XPLR to Solution XPLR for further evaluation and simulation. This enhanced functionality preserves diagrams and identified AI opportunities during the transition, ensuring workflow continuity and eliminating data loss.
Apply enterprise context
Enterprise context integration: Once you have configured your organization's technology landscape, you can apply this context to transform generic process diagrams into customized workflows that reflect your specific technology environment.
Click the ‘Apply Enterprise Context’ button while viewing any process diagram.
A confirmation dialog named 'Generate Diagram' will appear stating, "This action will generate a technology landscape diagram. Do you want to continue?" Click ‘Confirm’ to proceed.
The system will automatically transform the diagram by applying your organization's enterprise context settings, including:
Technology stack configurations
Industry-specific adaptations
Organizational data sources and vendor information
Business function alignments
Visual indication: Once the enterprise context is applied, the diagram elements will change color (from blue to purple) to indicate that the process flow now reflects your organization's specific technology landscape and operational context, making the implementation guidance more relevant and actionable for your enterprise environment.
AI solution library: Clicking on it opens a side panel listing relevant AI solutions applicable to this process. Each solution includes:
The name of the solution
Assigned impact level (Incremental, transformative, breakthrough)
A shortcut to the solution details overview for more information
Enterprise context: Allows you to establish a comprehensive organizational context through two main sections:
Company tab: Set your industry classification (e.g., Software and Services) and provide a detailed company description to establish your organization's business profile and operational context.
Technology/Data Landscape tab: Configure your organization's complete technology ecosystem by:
Selecting which enterprise platforms are applicable to your environment (toggle between "Applicable" and "Not Applicable")
For each applicable technology, provide detailed configuration including:
Technology Vendor (e.g., ZBrain )
Version information for the specific technology implementation
Aligned Business Functions through a dropdown selection
Data Source Details with comprehensive information about your data sources and their characteristics
Available technology categories include:
GenAI Development Platform
ERP
CRM
HCM
SCM
Business Intelligence & Analytics
Collaboration & Communication
Cloud Infrastructure
Service Management Platforms
Project Portfolio Management systems
Marketing Automation
E-commerce
Corporate Performance Management
Procurement Management Platform
Custom platform categories: In addition to the predefined technology platforms, you can create custom platform categories specific to your organization's unique technology stack. Clicking ‘+ Add Platform Category’ opens a centered modal overlay, where users can enter a platform name and description. The modal supports quick category creation without navigating away from the Technology/Data Landscape view.
Platform Category Name: Enter the name of your custom technology platform
Description: Provide a detailed description of the platform's purpose and functionality within your organization
This flexibility allows you to capture specialized or proprietary technologies that may not be included in the standard platform list.
Show AI enablers: Clicking this button highlights the types of AI capabilities applicable to each step in the workflow. These include prediction AI, conversational AI, workflow AI, insight AI, cognitive AI and content AI. The enablers are determined based on the agents listed under the ‘Opportunities’ tab in the Hackett AI Hubble panel.
Prediction AI: Uses historical data to forecast outcomes or trends. Common examples include demand forecasting, credit risk assessment, or churn prediction.
Conversational AI: Supports natural language interactions through chatbots or voice assistants using technologies like NLP. It helps automate communication-heavy steps such as customer inquiries, employee helpdesks, or internal support.
Workflow AI: Optimizes and automates multi-step business processes. It often includes decision logic, task routing, and coordination across systems to reduce manual work.
Insight AI: Extracts meaningful patterns and recommendations from data. This can involve dashboards, summaries, or analytics for faster, data-driven decisions in processes like reporting or compliance monitoring.
Cognitive AI: Mimics human reasoning by combining multiple AI techniques (e.g., NLP, vision, learning) to perform complex tasks. Examples include document understanding, sentiment detection, or fraud detection in multi-source data.
Content AI: Generates or enhances various types of content, including text, images, and documents. Common applications include automated report generation, marketing copy creation, document summarization, and personalized content development for campaigns or communications.
Export options: Click on the three lines (☰) menu to access export functionality. You can export the diagram in multiple formats, such as ZIP, XML, SVG, or PNG, for saving and sharing.
To close the diagram, click on the ‘Close diagram’ () button at the top right corner.
3. Click steps to view AI opportunities
Clicking on a specific step within the workflow opens the ‘Hackett AI hubble’ panel, which includes two sections:
AI Hubble:
Displays each process step's Name, Description, and associated AI Enablers, helping users identify optimization and automation opportunities across the workflow.
Click 'Discover AI Opportunities' to analyze your process and generate AI-powered recommendations that will be displayed in the dedicated Opportunities tab for review and implementation.
Opportunities: Lists GenAI agents that can be applied to that step. Each agent entry includes:
Agent name
Brief description
Required data
An ‘Essential’ or ‘Optional’ label, indicating how critical the agent is for automating or enhancing the step
High/medium/low tag based on the complexity of development, reflecting the level of effort and technical depth needed to implement the agent
Generate embedded AI
This helps users see how AI applies at a granular task level and which agents are applicable in that specific context. You can select the agents you want by clicking the checkmark button, and they will be added automatically.
Example: Credit review use case
Let’s say you're working with a finance team looking to assess creditworthiness.
Type “credit” into the search process bar. Or, navigate to Back Office / Finance / Customer-to-Cash/ Credit.
View available task-level processes like:
Maintain credit policy
Establish new credit
Review existing credit
Click 'AI solutions' to read details and select the solution that fits your needs.
Open the ‘Diagram’ to understand workflow integration.
Summary
Taxonomy XPLR simplifies how enterprises explore GenAI use cases:
It organizes all potential solutions in a structured, drillable format
Users can search and explore AI solutions by business process
Each node links to real solution entries and workflow visuals
Both strategic and operational users can use it to find relevant solutions
Users can leverage it to ensure no potential AI opportunity is overlooked, whether you’re planning at the department level or solving one operational gap.
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