Agentic business orchestration: The secret sauce for success

Going out for dinner is an incredible example of process excellence. From the moment you make a reservation to when you pay the check and walk out, a remarkable number of systems and processes have had to work together to allow the experience to succeed.

Each of the basic elements is important. A great menu will keep satisfied customers coming back. Certainly the right recipes can bring an eatery to the fore, and a capable or well-known chef is a good way of attracting attention. Even just the right decor and atmosphere can create a stir in the food scene.

Ultimately though, it’s the combination of these factors that will ensure any restaurant succeeds past the initial impact they make on the market. The key is that all those practices need to be well-managed and executed, working in harmony, coordinated with both passion and precision to deliver the kind of dining experience that will stand the test of time. It’s greater than the sum of its parts, and while the processes that support it are vital, there’s also a distinctly human element that needs to be at work.

Agentic AI and the future of process management

I think that’s an important lesson when we consider the future of process management, particularly in the light of the explosion of agentic artificial intelligence (AI). As more and more industries embrace the potential of this tool, we need to keep the big picture in sight and understand how important the management and coordination of all the processes is, with the human touch deeply embedded in the system. 

To grasp the importance, it might help to think of your business like an award-winning restaurant. The recipes are your existing automations and processes. They’re clear and well-defined steps and procedures that are designed to utilize specific inputs and produce expected outcomes. They’re tools executing your operations based on a fixed set of rules and requirements, without fail. 

The chef in this scenario is your agentic AI. They’re delivering the recipe outcomes, working to the established plans, and drawing on their extensive training to execute the steps and meet the expectations of the customer. They take the orders that are passed to them and match them to the recipes, then produce the outcomes that you’re looking for with precision and efficiency.

What we need to remember though is that all of this happens in the context of a bustling, energetic kitchen behind a thriving restaurant. For many businesses today, that’s the part of the picture they’re not seeing. They can define their ‘recipes’ and deploy great ‘chefs,’ but they’ve missed how vital it is to manage the rest of the processes to integrate smoothly.

Things like raw ingredient preparation, stocking the coolers, and handling the orders and front of house delivery. That’s not to say they don’t have processes in place for inputs and outputs of course, but the coordination and control of all these elements is vital in achieving business goals and can become either overlooked, or overwhelming. Doing it well is something we call orchestration, and it’s the secret sauce for success.

Why agentic business orchestration is the secret sauce

As AI is becoming more prevalent, this is the part of the puzzle that too many enterprises are missing. According to MIT, 95 percent of AI pilot programs will fail to launch. Many people are looking to AI to be the next silver bullet, but the real answer is in integrating these tools, like any, into a cohesive and comprehensive process platform.

AI agents need to work with existing systems in a solidly structured way, and interface with human operators to allow for safeguards and effective outcomes. Without that scaffolding they can’t really hope to offer any real advantage over existing approaches.

Unfortunately, in many cases, the application of AI to operations leads to fatigue for the humans in the loop. Compliance and governance are important when you have automated decision-making happening, but most AI systems are constantly generating notifications, sign-offs, and escalations. The people responsible for these become overwhelmed, or worse, numb to them. Instead of careful checks and balances you end up with people clearing their notifications in bulk and not considering the decisions being made with the right level of care.

This is where agentic business orchestration can make a difference. By creating processes that manage the AI inputs and outputs, you can curate the data being fed to human teams and ensure they are working with the things that matter. Orchestration uses process tools to identify strategic outcomes and manage the risk and compliance elements, ensuring that human operators are dealing with an appropriate level of events. It creates a framework for AI to work effectively while freeing your teams to focus on customer outcomes. 

Injecting passion and life into your operations

This is how you inject passion and life into your operations. By clearly identifying stakeholders and creating effective, intelligent escalation frameworks, you move beyond the overwhelming check-box experience of poorly integrated AI and create genuine governance, managing the risks in a meaningful way that empowers your teams to feel like they’re making a difference.

To go back to the restaurant analogy, it makes sure that everything is working in sync with a purpose. It’s not just having the right pieces in place, but coordinating them meaningfully for a genuinely delightful dining experience. 

Just like a restaurant needs more than just a good chef or great location, businesses need to carefully consider the way they integrate and employ the wealth of tools available to succeed. The whole operation needs effective and efficient orchestration to get the best out of every part of the business, and to create truly satisfying customer outcomes.

If you’re thinking about exploring agentic AI and what it can do with your business, get a taste for great agentic business orchestration alongside it and see what wonders you can cook up.