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: Adds the selected process to your solution workspace for further evaluation and simulation.

• AI solution library: Clicking on it opens a side panel listing relevant AI solutions applicable in 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 set an industry context for the process and a description. You can also add associated technologies and data sources used in your organization and give a description of the data.

• 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, and cognitive 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.

• Options: Provides export function. You can export the diagram in formats such as ZIP, XML, SVG, or PNG.

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 the step name and a short description of what it does.

• 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.

1. Type “credit” into the search process bar. Or, navigate to Back Office / Finance / Customer-to-Cash/ Credit.

2. View available task-level processes like:

   • Maintain credit policy

   • Establish new credit

   • Review existing credit

3. Click 'AI solutions' to read details and select the solution that fits your needs.

4. 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, explore, and compare 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 for one operational gap.