Horizon (usehorizon.ai) and ClearWork both use AI to interview employees, but they work at different depths. Horizon runs organization-wide interview waves to find and rank improvement initiatives. ClearWork goes deep on a chosen process area, down to every step, decision, exception, system and requirement, signed off by process owners and traced to its source.
ClearWork makes one of the tools in this comparison. We've described Horizon as fairly as we can from its own site and public coverage, as of the date above. If something is out of date, tell us at [email protected].
We compared both platforms on seven criteria that matter to private equity operating teams and enterprise transformation leaders:
Horizon describes itself as "an AI-powered continuous discovery platform for large enterprises." Its AI agents run one-on-one interviews with hundreds of employees at once, adapt their questions as they go, and combine what they hear with SOPs, policies and process documents. A feature called Pulse keeps the picture current through recurring Slack check-ins.
The output is a ranked view of where to act: insights scored by impact and effort, initiatives with ROI estimates, executive presentations, as-is and to-be process maps with gap analysis, and implementation material such as RFPs and process definition documents. Diagrams export as BPMN.
Horizon's strongest proof is scale. Its published Mercado Libre case covers about 2,000 people across nine countries, and its customer list is weighted toward large Latin American enterprises in finance, retail and logistics. It raised a $3.5M seed round led by NXTP in January 2026 and is based in San Francisco, Montevideo and Buenos Aires.
Best for: transformation leaders who want a fast, company-wide read on where improvement value sits.
ClearWork is an AI discovery platform for processes and requirements. Its agent, Clarity, runs async AI interviews, by voice or chat in about 20 minutes, with the people who actually do the work, and people can add screen recordings to show how a task is done on screen. It also ingests the documents that already exist, so interviews fill gaps instead of repeating what's written down.
ClearWork is built for depth. Pick a process area and it goes down to the level of detail the work needs: each step and its variations, the decisions and business rules behind them, exceptions and workarounds, handoffs between roles, and the systems and data each step touches. It covers more than the process map: the same discovery produces the requirements and the system picture a change needs. When a first round leaves gaps, you run another round on the same area, and the process owners validate each one.
The difference is what happens next. Findings go back to the process owners to validate and sign off, and every step in the process map, every SOP line and every requirement is traced to the person or document it came from. The outputs are the ones a deal team, a vendor or an implementation partner can act on: current-state process maps, SOPs, requirements, traceability matrices, fit-gap analysis, and improvement and AI opportunities by role.
Engagements start with a 30-day focus-area sprint, then move to annual contracts. Discovery takes one to four weeks depending on scope and complexity.
Best for: operating partners and transformation teams who need every step, system and requirement of a specific process area, confirmed by the people who own it.
Depth versus breadth. Horizon is built to cover a whole organization and point to where value sits. ClearWork is built to go as deep as one process area needs: every step, decision, exception and handoff, the systems and data each step touches, and the requirements that follow. When the first round leaves gaps, you run another round on the same area until the picture is complete.
What "traced" means. Horizon links findings to employee evidence. ClearWork traces each line of each deliverable to its source and adds a sign-off step, which matters when the output feeds an ERP build, a carve-out plan or an integration where mistakes are expensive.
Private equity fit. We found no private equity page or PE case study on Horizon's site. ClearWork has a dedicated private equity offer built around add-on integrations, with 100-day plans, carve-outs and key-person risk as further use cases.
Choose Horizon if your main question is where to focus across a large organization, you want hundreds or thousands of employees heard in one wave, and the output you need is a prioritized initiative list and business cases. Its free One Week Challenge is a low-risk way to test that.
Choose ClearWork if you need to go deep on a specific process area: every step and exception, the systems and data behind it, and the requirements to change it, confirmed by the people who own it and refined over as many rounds as it takes. That's typical for transformation teams heading into an ERP or operating-model change, and for operating partners in the first 100 days.
The two can work in sequence: a broad scan to choose focus areas, then validated discovery on the ones you pick. See how ClearWork works, or read our longer piece on the two approaches to AI-led discovery.
No. Horizon's own comparison with Celonis puts it simply: "Celonis reads your systems. Horizon listens to your people."
No. Process mining reads system event logs and task mining records desktop activity. ClearWork interviews the people who do the work, adds their screen recordings and existing documents, and produces validated, traced deliverables.
Yes. A broad scan can identify which processes matter most, and ClearWork can then produce the signed-off current state and requirements for those processes.
It depends on the job. For a portfolio-wide view of improvement themes, Horizon's scale helps. For a 100-day plan, an add-on integration or a carve-out, where you need a specific process documented and confirmed, ClearWork is built for that work.
As deep as the process area needs: every step, decision, exception and handoff, the systems and data each step touches, and the requirements that follow. You can run further rounds on the same area until the detail is complete, and process owners validate each one.
Neither publishes prices. Horizon lists "Contact for pricing" and offers a free one-week pilot. ClearWork starts with a 30-day focus-area sprint, followed by annual contracts.
Horizon facts were checked on November 13, 2026 at usehorizon.ai (home, /about, /product, /customers, /bfsi, /one-week-challenge, /alternatives/celonis) and in DPL News coverage of its January 2026 seed round.