# On the Potential of Multi-Task Learning in Predictive Process Monitoring

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2609.13477 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.13477/

## Key facts

- No citing papers in the map yet (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 17 of its 32 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 11 Sep 2026.

## Builds on (most cited first, 17 of 17)

- [Multi-Task Learning Using Uncertainty to Weigh Losses for Scene Geometry and Semantics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.07115/) (2017)
- [Gradient Surgery for Multi-Task Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.06782/) (2020)
- [GradNorm: Gradient Normalization for Adaptive Loss Balancing in Deep Multitask Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.02257/) (2017)
- [End-to-End Multi-Task Learning with Attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1803.10704/) (2018)
- [Conflict-Averse Gradient Descent for Multi-task Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.14048/) (2021)
- [Which Tasks Should Be Learned Together in Multi-task Learning?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.07553/) (2019)
- [Multi-Task Learning as a Bargaining Game](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.01017/) (2022)
- [Just Pick a Sign: Optimizing Deep Multitask Models with Gradient Sign Dropout](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.06808/) (2020)
- [Predictive Business Process Monitoring with LSTM Neural Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1612.02130/) (2016)
- [Reasonable Effectiveness of Random Weighting: A Litmus Test for Multi-Task Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.10603/) (2021)
- [Do Current Multi-Task Optimization Methods in Deep Learning Even Help?](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.11379/) (2022)
- [MultiNet++: Multi-Stream Feature Aggregation and Geometric Loss Strategy for Multi-Task Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.08492/) (2019)
- [A systematic literature review on state-of-the-art deep learning methods for process prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2101.09320/) (2021)
- [Predictive Business Process Monitoring via Generative Adversarial Nets: The Case of Next Event Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.11268/) (2020)
- [Creating Unbiased Public Benchmark Datasets with Data Leakage Prevention for Predictive Process Monitoring](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.01905/) (2021)
- [Time Matters: Time-Aware LSTMs for Predictive Business Process Monitoring](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.00889/) (2020)
- [Analytical Uncertainty-Based Loss Weighting in Multi-Task Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.07985/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Predictive Process Monitoring (PPM) forecasts how ongoing organizational processes unfold, enabling information systems to move beyond execution support toward proactive analysis and monitoring. Although deep learning has improved prediction accuracy in PPM, most approaches follow a single-task learning (STL) setup, training a separate model per task. This increases maintenance effort and overlooks potential synergies. Multi-task learning (MTL), which jointly learns multiple prediction targets in one model, offers a promising alternative, yet its effectiveness in PPM remains underexplored. It remains unclear whether and under which settings MTL improves upon STL, which prediction tasks benefit most from joint learning, which task combinations are particularly synergistic, and if and how tasks should be balanced. To fill this gap, we present the first comprehensive empirical study of MTL for PPM, evaluating a variety of task combinations, neural architectures, and optimization methods. Overall, our results position MTL as a strong paradigm for PPM: we see substantial improvements in next-activity prediction and inherent mitigation of class imbalance using MTL, while task balancing is especially critical under low-capacity models.