Perhaps the number one goal of any business today is to achieve efficiency through agility. After all, optimizing workloads to maximize productivity and profit, amid fewer available resources, is the safest way to adapt to an ever-changing business landscape. As new competitors emerge, customer expectations evolve, and compliance regulations tighten, organizations must be ready to swiftly adjust to any new challenge that presents itself.
Fortunately, new technology is emerging that can instantly accelerate efficiency. For instance, Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant or co-pilot and features like vehicle driver-assist systems can both ease some of the mental burden on employees. So, it’s no surprise that we’re seeing a growing trend of technology-reinforced employee responsibilities.
At first, this support is usually more guided, like the driving assistant that helps drivers stay within their lane. But soon, the technology will take on more autonomy—beginning with simple tasks, like robotic vacuum cleaners, progressing into more important areas of life, like self-driving cars, until we finally see the full-scale integration of autonomous technology into our business and personal lives.
For now, the area most likely to be next impacted by autonomy is Business Process Management (BPM). But what exactly will its impact be? A ground-breaking, instant transformation, or piece-by-piece progression? Let’s explore the current state of BPM and its ripeness for autonomous revolution.
Pathways: The key pillars of business processes
Business processes are key to an organization, defining how value is created for both internal and external customers. When processes are not explicitly defined, people tend to create ad hoc processes as needed, leading to inefficiencies and chaos. Think of processes as pathways – predefined routes that allow organizations to scale efficiently. These pathways ensure that solutions are standardized for various situations and participants.
For example, when a customer calls your hotline, the call center agent does not ask random questions. Instead, the process is carefully defined, documented, and supported with the necessary knowledge. This process provides clear instructions for your employees, much like paving the way for them to follow.
Guidelines: Essential for order
Imagine a sports championship without any rules; How would you determine the winner? Competing in a world without guidelines would be very challenging.
Similarly, just as pathways have guard rails and rules about littering that are supposed to regulate behaviour, and streets have speed limits, companies and organisations establish policies and requirements to ensure order and compliance. In many industries – especially highly regulated ones like healthcare or banking – adhering to these rules is mission-critical, and companies must follow the rules and report on compliance.
In BPM, policies and guidelines are directly linked to the critical business processes, and sensors linked to the processes monitor compliance issues.
Education: ongoing learning
Learning how to drive is not a one-time occurrence. Sure, a driver may need to learn the rules of the road, but every time that driver gets behind the wheel and engages in the practice of driving, he or she is continuously learning. Similarly, when new employees onboard, they initially learn about the processes, policies, and systems related to the expected ways of working.
But in a dynamic world, change is constant, and employees must continuously be informed about changes in the organization’s procedures. It’s crucial that employees don’t spend a (work) lifetime discovering these changes on their own.
Feedback loop: evidence-based adjustments
Without data on performance and deviations, it is hard to adjust the course of action. In a car, drivers receive real-time information about speed and progress via GPS. In organizations, feedback loops provide leaders with insights into (1) output, (2) input, and (3) the processes that transform input into output.
Much like a car warns you when you’re driving too fast, organizations implement preventive actions, gathering information during process runtime to prevent issues like overspending, non-compliance, or inefficiencies.
Predictions: preparing for the future
With technology, we can plan our future, whether it’s predicting traffic conditions or simulating plans before execution. Technology offers real-time assistance during the journey, such as warning of upcoming traffic jams and suggesting alternatives. This broader perspective, exemplified by augmented indicators that highlight improperly executed processes, is invaluable for a company’s target operational model. And when process mining-based performance and compliance data is integrated into process standards, the positive effect is amplified even further.
Having covered these aspects, the next stages in the evolution of BPM include:
Autonomous BPM: The next phase of process management?
Business processes, as the outcomes of BPM activities, will become increasingly self-contained and self-regulated.
These dimensions of process autonomy will emerge:
The process itself
Processes will actively self-regulate, informing and even preventing violations using Machine Learning (ML)/AI capabilities. While this is already a reality in some areas like banking, finance, and procurement, it remains a dream in many others. Processes will operate flexibly within the boundaries defined by the organization.
The process factory
Process management will evolve from (1) manual to (2) tech-guided to (3) autonomous and (partly) run by tech. Automation, such as Process and Task Mining and Generative AI will enhance BPM tasks, acting as a companion that will make BPM professionals more productive.
Could autonomous process management ever supersede humans?
Autonomy is set to profoundly spread throughout the practice of BPM due to market dynamics and new technological emergence. But this doesn’t mean that humans will be out of jobs—far from it. While technology can automatically solve problems and boost value creation, humans will still need to provide their unique judgement, creativity, and data-gathering skills. Ultimately, while autonomous processes and process management are set to transform workloads, human expertise and adaptability will remain the key to tomorrow’s BPM progress.
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