AI agents and business processes are not just related—they’re deeply intertwined.

You have surely heard all the buzz about AI agents revolutionizing how businesses operate. But isn’t the work of designing AI agents fundamentally similar to defining business processes? And if so, could existing tools for business process management (BPM) be the key to unlocking AI’s full potential?

I think the answer is a resounding yes. AI agents and business processes are not just related—they’re deeply intertwined.

Here’s why I think understanding this overlap matters and how it could change the way you approach your organization’s next AI-Agent-powered digital transformation.

The AI Agent: More Than Just Buzzwords

There are thousands of different definitions out there, but it’s generally recognized that AI agents are designed to achieve specific outcomes by making decisions and taking actions with some degree of “autonomy” that differentiates them from simple automations.

For instance, they might optimize your inventory management by analyzing real-time demand data or improve customer service by handling support tickets dynamically. But isn’t that what we’ve always been doing with business process workflows? After all, traditional business processes definitions involve structured steps—”If X happens, do Y.” Tools like SAP Signavio help you visualize and optimize these workflows for consistency and efficiency.

AI agents, however, bring a twist: they are supposed to be able to dynamically adapt to changing conditions, learn from experience, and handle exceptions without predefined rules.

In other words, AI agents are set to take what BPM started and make it smarter and more flexible.

Aren’t AI agents and business processes the same thing?

Think about it: to create an AI agent, you need a clear goal, a set of potential actions, and decision-making rules—essentially, the same elements that define a business process.

However, AI agents introduce new concepts that we don’t typically associate with defined business processes (yet?)

• Adapt on the Fly: They don’t just follow static workflows; they learn and adjust based on real-world feedback.
• Handle the Unstructured: AI agents can tackle tasks that traditional workflows would struggle with, such as analyzing customer sentiment in emails to processing supplier invoices with handwritten annotations, .
• Bridge Silos: At least theoretically AI agents can more easily connect processes across different business silos, and so offer end-to-end workflows that are often difficult to achieve with manual process design.

For example, imagine you’re managing a global supply chain. Traditional workflows typically cover standard steps like reordering inventory when stock levels drop. An AI agent, on the other hand, could monitor weather forecasts, assess supplier reliability, and predict demand spikes to reorder proactively—all without waiting for a predefined trigger.

But is that enough to define AI agents as truly different from a business process workflow? I think it’s helpful to imagine AI Agents as expanding the scope of what traditional business process design can offer.

Why AI Agents Expand the Scope of Processes

Here’s where it gets exciting: AI agents don’t just automate existing workflows. They expand the very definition of what a business process can be by:

• Incorporating Real-Time Data: From IoT sensors in warehouses to live customer feedback on social media, AI agents can react to data streams in ways that rigid processes can’t.
• Optimizing Edge Cases: Exception handling has always been a headache for traditional workflows. AI agents thrive in these gray areas, learning to navigate complexity without breaking stride.
• Creating New Processes: By analyzing bottlenecks and inefficiencies, AI agents can suggest entirely new workflows. Think of it as process mining on steroids.

The result? Processes that aren’t just consistent and compliant but also dynamic, adaptive, and resilient.

But wait, if an AI Agent working autonomously… doesn’t that mean it’s automated?

So are AI agents eventually just a evolution of process automation?. The answer depends on your perspective:

• Automation executes predefined steps with high consistency. Think of robotic process automation (RPA) or workflow automation tools. Great for stable, repeatable tasks.
• Autonomy introduces flexibility, enabling systems to learn, adapt, and make decisions in uncertain scenarios. This is where AI agents shine.

As AI agents mature, their autonomy should stabilize into repeatable patterns—at that point, it will be considered “just” automation (this has already happened with traditional machine learning in the past). But getting there will requires the dynamic learning and adaptability that only autonomous systems can provide.

What This Means for ERP Leaders

Here’s why this overlap should be on your radar:

1. Use BPM as a Foundation for AI: Don’t start your search for AI Agent use cases from scratch! Tools like SAP Signavio can map existing workflows and identify inefficiencies. These process models are a perfect starting point for designing AI agents.
2. Leverage Process Mining for AI Optimization: Process mining tools can uncover real-world deviations and bottlenecks in your workflows, giving AI agents the data they need to learn and improve.
3. Integrate AI Seamlessly into Existing Workflows: Rather than reinventing the wheel, let AI agents augment your current processes. You can start small by automating edge cases or dynamic decision points (and these are exactly the AI use cases that vendors like SAP are leading with).
4. Think Big Picture: As AI agents improve, they can help create entirely new workflows, bridging gaps between departments and enabling end-to-end automation.

Conclusion: AI Agents Aren’t Replacing Business Process Management—They’re Set to Supercharge it

In the race to adopt AI, don’t overlook the wealth of knowledge and structure already available in your business process workflows. AI agents don’t render BPM obsolete; they amplify its potential. Think of BPM as the “blueprints” and AI agents as the adaptive workers bringing those blueprints to life—faster, smarter, and more dynamically than ever.

For ERP leaders, the real opportunity lies in merging these worlds: using BPM to ground your processes in consistency while letting AI agents push the boundaries of what’s possible. Start with what you already have, and let AI help you take your business processes to the next level.

Welcome to the future of smart process automation. It’s closer than you think.

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