Best tools to find AI automation opportunities in 2026: 8 compared
Eight tools that find and rank automation candidates, read from public pages: what each records, what goes into its ranking, and which to shortlist.
Short answer
The right tool depends on where your work is recorded. For work inside ERP and CRM, start with process mining such as Celonis. For no installs, start with AI-led interviews such as Pointee. For desktop work between systems, shortlist Automation Anywhere Process Discovery or NiCE Automation Finder. Before you buy, ask what goes into the ranking score. We read each vendor’s public pages on October 16, 2026.
On this page
- Tools compared
- 8: seven vendors plus Nolli
- Checked
- October 16, 2026, from public pages
- Public price found
- None for these eight products
Quick picks
- Best if your work runs in ERP and CRMCelonisReads the data your systems already keep, so nobody is recorded. The pages we read say it finds processes and do not describe how it ranks them. Price: through sales.
- Best way to start with no installsPointeeAI-led interviews in a browser, plus documents and logs you upload, with each proposed step citing its source. Scores automation potential per step. Price: not published.
- Best for desktop work between systemsAutomation Anywhere Process DiscoveryComputer-vision capture across mainframe, virtual desktop and web work, with personal data redacted before it leaves your network. NiCE Automation Finder spells out its scoring inputs better.
Nolli makes one of the products on this page. We list it like the others, with its limits. We compare from each vendor’s public pages and name our sources below. We did not run hands-on tests.
Key takeaways
- The vendor pages on page one each rank the ways to find automation so that their own way wins, so compare the tools on what they record and what goes into the ranking.
- Most pages say they rank by ROI and few say from what, so ask for the inputs and for one opportunity the tool ranked low, with the reason.
- None of the eight publishes a price we could read, so ask for a number at your head count before the demo.
Start from where the work is recorded. Work that runs through an ERP or CRM leaves event logs, and process mining reads them. Work between systems leaves nothing in a log, so a tool has to record the desktop or ask the people. That one fact sorts the eight tools below better than any feature list.
This list is for an operations, IT or transformation leader at a company of 50 to 5,000 people who has to hand the AI team a backlog. We read each vendor’s own pages on October 16, 2026 and ran none of the products. Our guide covers the method. This post covers the tools.
What page one says, and who wrote it
We searched the target phrase on October 16, 2026. Most of page one is vendor pages. Read them in a row and a pattern shows: each one ranks the ways to find automation so that its own way comes out on top.
- Scribe’s page lists five ways that teams decide what to automate, “ranked from least to most effective”. Gut feel is first. Workflow-level analysis with exception awareness is last, and it is what Scribe Optimize sells.
- Skan AI’s page says roadmaps built on interviews and documentation rest on guesswork, and that Skan observes the work instead.
- Larridin’s page (March 21, 2026) says interviews, workshops and outside assessments all depend on people describing their work accurately, and argues for passive observation.
- Celonis’s pages say process mining finds the processes suitable for automation, and that task mining covers the desktop work around it.
- Pointee’s page says discovery rebuilt from memory and meetings hands wrong assumptions to the automation, and builds from interviews, documents and system data.
- BaseFrame’s guide (updated May 2026) puts BaseFrame in a discovery layer and says process mining suits structured event logs.
Each claim is fair as far as it goes. None of the pages is neutral, and ours is not either. Nolli is on this list. Under the rule below it comes last.
Five ways to find the work, and what each cannot see
The eight tools use five different kinds of evidence. Pick the evidence first. The tool follows.
| Method | What it sees | What it misses | In this list |
|---|---|---|---|
| Interviews and workshops | What people can recall and explain, including the reason behind a step. | Work people no longer notice, and exact counts. Celonis describes these methods as showing how people think a process runs. | Pointee (AI-led interviews) |
| Process mining | Event logs from systems such as ERP and CRM, with every process variant. | Work outside those systems, such as spreadsheets and copy and paste. Celonis says task mining exists to cover that. | Celonis |
| Task mining | Clicks, keystrokes and screens on the desktop. | Why a person chose a step, and work away from the recorded screen. | NiCE, Automation Anywhere, Skan AI, BeanSprout |
| Workflow capture | Step-by-step workflows in approved apps, captured as people work. | What the page does not say it records, and work outside the approved apps. | Scribe Optimize |
| AI discovery from observed work | Screen work, connected email and calendar, and AI agent logs, joined into one map. | Exact case counts from your systems. It is not an event-log mining suite, and it learns only from what your company allows. | Nolli |
The task mining list goes deeper on the desktop row, with consent and redaction details for Celonis, UiPath, Microsoft and others.
What each vendor’s page actually says
| Celonis | Pointee | Scribe | NiCE | Auto. Anywhere | Skan AI | BeanSprout | Nolli | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Says what goes into the opportunity score | none | fully | partly | fully | partly | partly | partly | fully |
| Says what it captures | fully | fully | partly | fully | partly | partly | partly | fully |
| Names a privacy control | none | partly | fully | partly | fully | none | none | fully |
| Gives a price or a way to try it | partly | none | none | none | none | none | none | none |
| Hands the ranked list to a build step | partly | fully | partly | fully | partly | fully | fully | fully |
| Can start without recording screens | fully | fully | none | none | none | none | none | none |
none partly fully · From each vendor’s public pages, read on October 16, 2026. Full: the page says it plainly. Half: it says part of it, for example “ranked by ROI” with no inputs. Empty: we found nothing, which does not prove the product lacks it. Celonis’s product docs open only with a login and we read its general pages, so its column undersells it. Its half mark on the trial row is a source conflict, explained in its entry. Scribe and Automation Anywhere list security standards on their pages, and we saw no audit report for either. The marks are our judgment from marketing pages, not tests.
Read it by row. Capture detail is easy to find. The price row is empty for seven of eight and doubtful for the eighth. The ranking row is where the vendors split. NiCE, Pointee and Nolli say what goes into the score. The rest say “ROI” and stop, and that is the question to press in a demo.
The 8 tools, from lightest evidence to heaviest
Celonis
Best when the work runs in ERP and CRM and you want exact counts
Process mining software that reads the data in systems such as ERP and CRM to show how processes really run. Celonis’s blog says process mining can identify the processes suitable for automation, and its explainer says task mining adds the desktop work that systems do not log. We read its general process mining pages. Its product docs open only with a login.
Strengths
- Uses data your systems already keep, so no one is recorded or interviewed to start.
- Counts every variant of a process, which interviews and recordings cannot.
- Task mining is available as a separate paid add-on, covered in our task mining list.
Limits
- It sees what systems log. Spreadsheets, copy and paste and email sit outside, which is why Celonis points to task mining for them.
- The pages we read describe finding automation candidates and do not describe how it ranks them. Ask what goes into the ranking.
Pricing Not published. Celonis’s FAQ says pricing depends on the scale of your process mining and points to sales. The same FAQ says you can try the platform on a free plan. A May 14, 2026 post in Celonis’s community says new sign-ups got only Academy and Community access, and a reply says the instant free plan was gated. We could not settle which is current, so confirm a trial in writing.Vendor page
Pointee
Best for starting with no installs, from interviews and documents
Maps a process from AI-led interviews, documents you already have and system data. Interviews run in a browser by text or voice, with optional screen sharing. The map cites the interview or file behind each item. Then it scores each step for automation potential and attaches an indicative cost band.
Strengths
- No software on employees’ machines for interviews, per its FAQ.
- Says every proposed item cites the interview or file it came from, so you can trace a step to its source.
- Scores automation potential per step with a suggested technology, and says an approved map can become a running workflow in the same platform.
Limits
- Interview evidence rests on what people recall and choose to say. The page does not say how it catches an exception nobody mentions.
- It does not say whether desktop capture is recorded by Pointee or loaded from files you supply. The figures on the page are sample screens, not results.
Pricing Not published on the page we read.Vendor page
Scribe Optimize
Best for asking an agent what to automate, from captured workflows
Scribe’s pricing page describes a product that turns work into documentation. Optimize adds capture across approved apps, a dashboard you can explore by team, application and task, and an agent you can ask for your top automation opportunities. It ranks projects by projected ROI and time savings.
Strengths
- Lets you explore by team, by application and by task, and says to check downstream dependencies before you automate one step.
- Builds projects from the workflows it surfaced and attaches ROI projections and a business case.
- Says sensitive data is automatically redacted, and lists SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA, FERPA and GDPR on the page. We saw no report.
Limits
- The page does not say what the capture records (screens, clicks or text) or how often.
- Each person captured takes a billable seat, per Scribe’s support page, so cost grows with the number of people observed.
Pricing Not found for Optimize. Per Scribe’s support page, a participant (anyone whose activity is captured) is the billable seat. Admin roles are not.Vendor page
NiCE Automation Finder
Best for teams on NiCE attended automation that want candidates scored on stated inputs
A task mining tool included with NEVA, NiCE’s attended automation. It collects desktop actions (keystrokes, mouse selections, applications used, pages visited, field entries, handle time), finds repeated sequences with machine learning and scores them in a dashboard.
Strengths
- Lists its scoring inputs plainly: how long a process takes, how often it runs each day, how many repetitive tasks it has, which applications it uses and how many employees do it.
- Can anonymize specific applications and data types.
- Turns a recommended sequence into an automation flow and design documentation in one click, per its page.
Limits
- It ends in RPA flows for NEVA and unattended robots, not AI agents. The pages use RPA terms and are undated, so ask what has changed.
- Its page says it is installed as part of the NEVA desktop bot license. We could not tell whether it is sold alone.
Pricing Not published. NiCE’s page points to a contact form.Vendor page
Automation Anywhere Process Discovery
Best for large teams with mainframe or virtual desktop work and a redaction requirement
Uses computer vision to capture process details from mainframes, VDI, Windows, web apps and more, draws process maps and flow graphs, and says AI helps prioritize automation opportunities by ROI potential.
Strengths
- A Privacy Enhanced Gateway redacts personal information before data goes to the cloud, and you choose what data is collected, per its page.
- Capture covers mainframe and virtual desktop work, which logs and APIs rarely reach.
- Lists GDPR, CCPA, ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type 2 on the page. We saw no report.
Limits
- It says ROI potential and does not say what goes into it.
- Customer results on the page come with no method or sample, so we do not repeat them.
Pricing Not published. The page offers a personalized demo.Vendor page
Skan AI
Best for large enterprises with legacy and virtual desktops that want a dollar-quantified roadmap
Uses computer vision to observe any application, with no APIs or integration, per its FAQ. It classifies work as execution, comprehension, creation, decision or communication, scores each task for automation fit (automate, augment or keep human), and builds a roadmap with dollar values. You set your posture to conservative, moderate or aggressive.
Strengths
- Scores each task as automate, augment or keep human, the closest thing to a bucket call among the desktop tools.
- Its pricing page lists prioritizing initiatives by value, complexity and risk, and tracking adoption, productivity and ROI over time.
- Moves the roadmap into agents built from the observed work on the same platform.
Limits
- The automation discovery page offers “complete privacy” and nothing on what is masked. Ask for the fields captured and what is removed.
- Quotes average gains in processing time, errors and productivity with no method or sample, so we leave them out.
Pricing Quote only. Skan’s pricing page asks you to request a customized quote.Vendor page
BeanSprout Sprout Discover
Best for teams that want discovery and the agent build from one provider
Deploys a capture agent across desktops and systems, builds process maps from the work, and produces an automation pipeline ranked by ROI that separates what can be automated from what should be. The pipeline feeds Sprout Agents, which BeanSprout builds.
Strengths
- Says it needs no ERP integration, because it captures from desktops and systems directly.
- Separates “can automate” from “should automate” in the ranked pipeline.
- Adds task mining to process mining, so human steps between systems show up.
Limits
- Privacy is one phrase, “privacy-by-design”, with no controls named. Ask for the fields captured.
- The ranked list feeds agents BeanSprout builds. Ask whether it can leave if you pick another builder.
Pricing A fixed-fee Charter, per the page. The amount is not published.Vendor page
Nolli
Made by NolliBest for finding where AI belongs across teams from screen, email and AI agent logs
Nolli is AI discovery. It learns how your company works from people’s work on company devices, from the email and calendar your company connects, and from the logs of the AI agents people already use. It sorts each step into delete, plain code, agent or person, ranks the opportunities by value and prices them per task.
Strengths
- Names its value inputs: how often a task happens, how long it takes, how many people touch it and what their time costs, set against the cost per task of running it with AI.
- Joins three sources, so the map shows who works with whom and what people already hand to AI, not only screen work.
- Your company decides what it learns from. The trust page says passwords and login, checkout and billing pages stay out, and keys, card numbers and ID numbers are removed before any AI model sees the work.
Limits
- It observes the most of any tool here. That is why it is last in our order, and it asks the most of your privacy review.
- It is not an ERP event-log process mining suite. Its public pages describe learning from work, email and agent logs.
- No public price, and less technical detail on its pages than NiCE or Automation Anywhere. Ask for a security walkthrough.
Pricing No public price. Request a demo.Vendor page
Evidence against explanation
Positions are our reading of the public pages we read on October 16, 2026, not measurements. Left to right: from reading system records or asking people, to recording screens, email and agent logs. Bottom to top: from “ranked by ROI” with no inputs, to the inputs written out. The order of the dots matters more than the exact spot. Celonis sits low because we read its general pages and not its login-only docs, so it may deserve a higher spot.
Pick this, skip that
Pick Celonis if
most of the work you want to automate runs in an ERP or CRM and you need exact counts. Skip it for work that moves through email and spreadsheets. Get any trial offer in writing.
Pick Pointee if
you will not record screens yet and you can get the process owners into interviews. Ask how it catches the exception nobody mentions.
Pick Scribe Optimize if
your people already work in approved apps and you want to question captured workflows in plain language. Get the capture method and a price in writing.
Pick NiCE Automation Finder if
you run NiCE attended automation and want candidates scored on stated inputs. Skip it if your target is AI agents and not RPA flows.
Pick Automation Anywhere if
mainframe or virtual desktop work is the target and redaction before data leaves your network is a requirement. Ask what goes into the ROI score.
Skip Skan AI unless
you are large, run legacy desktops and want a dollar-quantified roadmap with agents on the same platform. Get the masking in writing.
Skip BeanSprout unless
you want discovery and the agent build from one provider. Ask whether the ranked list can leave.
Pick Nolli if
you want to find where AI belongs across teams from screen, email and agent logs, sorted into delete, plain code, agent or person. Skip it if you need exact event-log counts from an ERP, or a public price before a demo.
From a list of candidates to a ranked backlog
Every tool above ends at a list. A list is not a backlog. A backlog is what the AI team can start on Monday: ranked, owned, valued, and marked with the kind of change each row needs.
- 01Candidate listAnything a tool, an interview or a complaint surfaces. Scribe’s page lists “we saw a demo” as one way teams pick.
- 02MeasureHours per week, runs per day, people involved. NiCE lists duration, daily frequency, repetitive tasks, applications and employees.
- 03Sort by bucketDelete, plain code, agent or person. Skan scores each task automate, augment or keep human.
- 04ScoreHours, ease and risk on one scale, with a stated formula.
- 05Check a second sourceSystem logs or five interviews on the top rows. McKinsey’s retailer matched about a quarter of what process mining flagged.
- 06Ranked backlogAn owner, a bucket, a value and a stop rule on every row.
Re-measure after launch
The steps are our summary. The vendor notes come from public pages checked on October 16, 2026.
You can run the score step yourself. Our prioritization matrix template scores measured hours, ease and risk with a stated formula and a bucket column. A tool is worth paying for if it feeds that sheet better numbers than a survey would, and it is not worth paying for if it hands you a rank with no inputs.
of the $200 million to $500 million in savings that process mining flagged at a large international retailer was matched by initiatives its improvement teams could identify. McKinsey does not name the company. A finding is not a plan.
What to ask any vendor on page one
Seven questions, and get the answers in writing
- What goes into the score for one opportunity? Ask for hours, runs, people and cost as numbers, not a high, medium or low.
- Show me an opportunity you ranked low, and say why.
- What do you capture, field by field, and what is removed before anyone sees it?
- Who tells employees, and when?
- Can the ranked list leave your platform if I build somewhere else?
- Which numbers on your site came from a customer, and how were they measured?
- What does your method not see? Name the work it misses.
Mistakes buyers make
Starting with the loudest request
NiCE’s guide says the first process picked is usually the one people complain about most, and that it is usually not the best one to start with. Scribe says the same. Both sell discovery, and the point still matches how backlogs get made.
Do this todayWrite down the three requests you already have. Score them with everything else.
Buying the build step with the discovery step
Pointee, NiCE, Skan and BeanSprout each connect findings to their own build tool. That is convenient. Ask whether the ranked list can leave if you pick another builder.
Believing vendor numbers
Several vendor pages quote hours saved or speed gains with no method or sample. Larridin’s page, when we read it, says a financial services firm found “$XM” in savings, a placeholder where a number should be. Ask how a figure was measured, at what company size.
Do this todayAsk each vendor for one reference at your size, in your industry.
Ranking by frequency alone
Scribe’s page argues that frequency measures the happy path and not the exceptions. We agree. Picture a task that runs 400 times a week and breaks on one case in five. That is a different job from one that runs clean. Count exceptions next to volume.
Where Nolli fits
Where Nolli fits, and where it does not
Nolli is AI discovery. It learns how your company works from people’s work on company devices, from the email and calendar you connect and from the logs of the AI agents your people use, then sorts each step into delete, plain code, agent or person, ranks the opportunities by value and prices them per task. Your IT team installs it, and your company decides what it may learn from. It observes the most of any tool on this list, so it asks the most of your privacy review. It is not an ERP event-log process mining suite, its public pages describe no interview product, and it has no public price. Need exact case counts from your systems? Use process mining. Need to find where AI belongs across teams from how people work? See how Nolli decides, then request a demo on your own work.
Request a demoQuestions people ask
What is the best tool to find AI automation opportunities?
It depends on where your work is recorded. Process mining such as Celonis fits work inside ERP and CRM systems. Task mining tools such as NiCE Automation Finder and Automation Anywhere Process Discovery fit desktop work between systems. Pointee starts from interviews and documents with nothing to install.
Should I use process mining or task mining to find automation opportunities?
Process mining for work that runs inside systems, task mining for the desktop work between them. Celonis says the two are far more effective side by side. Start with whichever matches where your target process lives, and check the result against the other.
Can I find automation opportunities without recording employees?
Yes, in two ways in this list. Celonis reads system records, and Pointee works from AI-led interviews, documents and logs you upload. Both miss something. Logs do not see work outside systems, and interviews rest on what people recall.
How much do these tools cost?
We found no published price for any of the eight. Celonis says pricing depends on scale and goes through sales. Scribe’s support page says Optimize bills per participant, meaning each person whose activity is captured. Ask every vendor for a number at your head count.
How do I rank the opportunities once I have a list?
Score each one on measured hours, ease and risk with one formula, add a bucket (delete, plain code, agent or person), and check the top five against a second source. The prioritization matrix template has the formula.
Do employees have to be told about these tools?
For tools that record the desktop, who owes employees notice differs by vendor and by country. Take the question to your legal team and, if you have one, your worker council before anything goes live. This post is not legal advice.
Sources
- “Find High Impact Automation Opportunities in Minutes.” Scribe, accessed October 16, 2026.
- “Scribe Optimize: AI-powered workflow intelligence.” Scribe, accessed October 16, 2026.
- “Scribe pricing.” Scribe, accessed October 16, 2026.
- Sandra Kljajic. “Seats in Optimize.” Scribe Support Portal, updated August 27, 2026.
- “Process Discovery: Find Hidden Work & Automate for Impact.” Automation Anywhere, accessed October 16, 2026.
- “Automation discovery.” Skan AI, accessed October 16, 2026.
- “Skan AI pricing.” Skan AI, accessed October 16, 2026.
- “Process Discovery.” Pointee, accessed October 16, 2026.
- “Process Mining & Discovery Software (Sprout Discover).” BeanSprout AI, accessed October 16, 2026.
- “Automation Finder.” NiCE, accessed October 16, 2026.
- “NiCE Automation Finder: Opportunity Discovery.” NiCE, accessed October 16, 2026.
- “Process Mining.” Celonis, accessed October 16, 2026.
- “What is automated process discovery and how are enterprises using it to deliver business value?” Celonis, accessed October 16, 2026.
- “Business automation success: Process mining at the center.” Celonis, accessed October 16, 2026.
- “Frequently Asked Questions.” Celonis, accessed October 16, 2026.
- Bhaskar Rambala and a reply from a community member. “Celonis Free Plan & Academic Alliance no longer accessible for new users - is this discontinued?” Celonis Community, May 14 and May 22, 2026.
- Ameya Kanitkar. “Find High-Impact Automation Opportunities with Larridin Workflow Mapping.” Larridin, March 21, 2026.
- “Best AI Automation Discovery Tools.” BaseFrame, updated May 2026.
- Kar-Woon Choy, Rodrigo Chaparro Gazzo, Rohit Panikkar and Rohit Sood. “Better together: Process and task mining, a powerful AI combo.” McKinsey & Company, March 18, 2024.
- “Know where AI belongs, and what it’s worth.” Nolli, accessed October 16, 2026.
- “Trust and governance.” Nolli, accessed October 16, 2026.
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