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AI-Augmented Business Process Management Systems
Keynote talk delivered at the 9th International Workshop on AI for Business Process Management (AI4BPM) on Monday, September 1st, as part of the International Conference on Business Process Management in Seville, Spain. Title: "AI-Augmented Business Process Management Systems" Abstract. In this talk, I will present a vision for the next generation of process-aware information systems: AI-Augmented Business Process Management Systems (ABPMS). These systems sense, reason, and act within human-set frames to continuously adapt and improve processes—in an explainable and conversational manner. I will present: - The pyramid of capabilities that underpins ABPMS, from descriptive analytics to AI-augmented execution. - Enabling technologies, including process mining, simulation, causal policy learning, and LLM-based agents. - A conceptual architecture for ABPMS that brings these technologies together to enable autonomous yet controlled process execution and improvement. Looking forward to exchanging ideas with the BPM community on how AI can reshape the way organizations design, execute, and evolve their processes.
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AI-Augmented Business Process Management Systems
- 1. AI-Augmented Business ProcessManagement Marlon Dumas Professor @ University of Tartu Chief Product Officer @ Apromore AI4BPM Workshop – September 1, 2025
- 2. 2 2 Outline Background: Process Mining,Predictive & Prescriptive Process Intelligence Vision: AI-Augmented Business Process Management Systems (ABPMS) Architecture of an ABPMS Pathways to autonomous process execution
- 3. 3 Process Mining (Descriptive ProcessIntelligence) How do my processes look like? Where are the bottlenecks, wastes, compliance violations, positive & negative deviance? Automated Process Discovery Conformance Analysis Performance Analysis Process Mining is the beginning of a journey…
- 4. 4 Process Mining event log/ stream historical data process maps & models Enterprise systems, IoT systems… Process Mining live feeds enhanced process models, dashboards, KPIs conformance graphs, dashboards, KPIs comparative dashboards, diagnostic/root-cause reports Automated process discovery Performance analysis Conformance analysis Comparative analysis
- 5. 5 Predictive Process Intelligence Process Mining Howdo my processes look like? Where are the bottlenecks, wastes, compliance violations, positive & negative deviance? How will my process look like in future, if I leave it as-is, or if I change it? What’s the impact of automation or change? Predictive Process Monitoring Data-Driven Process Simulation Automated Process Discovery Conformance Analysis Performance Analysis Next step: predict the future
- 6. 6 Data-Driven Process Simulation Model Discovery ProcessConstraints / Process Model Enterprise System Change Specification Change Simulation Predicted Performance Profile Simulation Model
- 7. 8 Predictive Process Monitoring Predictivedashboards Event stream Predictive models Event log Database Enterprise System
- 8. 9 Results achieved: Eventhough the prediction of the most likely customers to report incorrectly was reasonably accurate, the intervention did not have a preventive effect. No root cause was identified to explain why the intervention did not have the desired effect.
- 9. 10 Prescriptive Process Intelligence Predictive Process Intelligence ProcessMining How do my processes look like? Where are the bottlenecks, wastes, compliance violations, positive & negative deviance? How will my process look like in future, if I leave it as-is, or if I change it? What’s the impact of automation or change? When should I intervene to optimize my KPIs? How can I improve the performance of my process? Predictive Process Monitoring Data-Driven Process Simulation Automated Process Discovery Conformance Analysis Performance Analysis Prescriptive Process Execution AI-Assisted Process Improvement Predicting is useful, preempting is better!
- 10. 11 Prescriptive Process Execution Eventlog (completed traces) Predictive model(s) Ongoing case P( ) Predictio n Recommendation Prescriptive System +/- - - + Cost-reward history
- 11. 12 AI-Assisted Process Improvement Optimizer DomainKnowledge Enterprise System - Automate tasks X and Y - Add +5 resources to task A - Remove -2 resources from task B … Simulation
- 12. 13 GenAI-Assisted Process Improvement Process Mining GenAI Enterprise System(s) Optimizer Digital Process Twin queries change option s Changes &KPIs Subject Matter Experts Conversational UI Domain Knowledge
- 13. 14 Augmented Process Management Prescriptive Process Intelligence Predictive Process Intelligence ProcessMining How do my processes look like? Where are the bottlenecks, wastes, compliance violations, positive & negative deviance? How will my process look like in future, if I leave it as-is, or if I change it? What’s the impact of automation or change? When should I intervene to optimize my KPIs? How can I improve the performance of my process? When should I adapt to unforeseen changes & how? Predictive Process Monitoring Data-Driven Process Simulation Automated Process Discovery Conformance Analysis Performance Analysis Prescriptive Process Execution Assisted Process Improvement Autonomous Process Execution Proactive Process Optimization Augmented Business Process Management
- 14. 15 Proactive Process Optimization Process Mining Agents Data Sources(s) Optimizer Prediction and Simulations queries change option s Changes &KPIs Subject Matter Experts Conversational UI Domain Knowledge performanc e changes changes in KPI, rules, priorities adjustment sadaptation s question s
- 15. 16 Augmented Process Management Prescriptive Process Intelligence Predictive Process Intelligence ProcessMining Augmented Business Process Management Data-Driven Simulation Automated Process Discovery Conformance Analysis Performance Analysis Assisted Process Improvement Proactive Process Optimization Predictive Process Monitoring Historical & Real- Time Dashboards Prescriptive Process Execution Autonomous Process Execution O p e r a ti o n a l D e c i s i o n - M a k i n g T a c ti c a l D e c i s i o n - M a k i n g
- 16. 17 Augmented BPM Systems: AnAugmented Business Process Management System (ABPMS) is a process-aware information system that relies on trustworthy AI technology to reason and act upon data, within a set of restrictions, with the aim to continuously adapt and improve a set of business processes with respect to one or more performance indicators. 17
- 17. 18 Augmented Business Process ManagementSystem • Supports a set of business processes • It monitors, adapts, and proactively optimizes a set of business process. • Autonomously orchestrates the activities of the processes it supports • It acts without direct human control, using AI technology to pursue the goal of its business processes, but… • Operates Within a Frame • It operates under explicit constraints that define performance goals, compliance rules, and safety conditions.
- 18. 19 Augmented BPM System:Functions Enables its users to define goals, rules, and performance indicators Frame Executes processes within the frame Enact Describes the current state and predict events and state changes Perceive Interprets its context, infers its states, recommends/triggers actions Reason Explains, Adapts, Improves: respond intelligently to change Respond
- 19. 20 Augmented BPM System:Lifecycle Architecture
- 20. 21 AI Fabric Agentic Workflows& Process Management Agents (sense, explain, reason, recommend, act) Data Layer (query & detect) Business Process Event Logs Other Business Data (time series, data cubes, IoT data…) Conversation Trails (email threads, chatbot logs…) Process Models & Documents Process Intelligence Layer (describe, explain, predict, recommend) Process Mining Predictive Process Monitoring Process Simulation & Optimization Compliance Monitoring Action Layer (act & interact) Process Execution Systems (e.g. BPMS) Task Automation Bots (RPA) Systems of Records (ERP, CRM…) Collaboration Tools (email, IM, file sharing…) Automated Planners & Schedulers IoT Actuators Next-Action Recommender Model Context Protocol (MCP) Tools End Users External Agents Augmented BPM System: Layered Architecture
- 21. 22 Will agentic workflowsreplace business processes? Will process management agents replace business process managers? Trillion dollars questions? 22
- 22. 23 Short answer • No… not while the customer & stakeholders are humans with evolving needs, desires, preferences, and attitudes. 23
- 23. 24 Longer answer • Therewill be a spectrum of processes along a triangle: • Human • Automated • Autonomic • Processes will continuously evolve along this triangle, rather than being fixed in one of its vertices. 24
- 24. 25 25 A bit ofterminology… • Process activity execution • The act of carrying out activities of a business process, by humans, software systems (incl. bots and AI agents), or machines (incl. robots). • These activities may be atomic (steps), or semi-atomic (tasks), or long-running. • Process orchestration • The coordination and management of process executions, across multiple people, software systems, and machines, or across organizations or organizational units. • Note: In this nomenclature, “task executions” are a category of “process executions”.
- 25. 26 26 A bit ofnotation… Human orchestrated process with human tasks • Typical patient treatment process Automated orchestration (e.g. in a BPMS) with automated tasks (RPA) • Some highly standardized banking and telco processes Autonomously orchestrated process (in an ABPMS) with autonomously executed tasks, acting within a frame • Building and launching a website for a commodity type of business Human (green) Automated (dusty rose) Autonomous (gray)
- 26. 27 27 The Process ExecutionTriangle Human Automated Autonomous
- 27. 28 28 Autonomization Pathways inthe Process Execution Triangle Human Automated Autonomous
- 28. 29 To be presentedat the BPM Forums