AI transformation: Row in sync or drift in chaos

If you’ve ever had the opportunity to watch competitive rowing as I have, you’ll recognize very quickly what a feat those teams achieve. Slicing through the water at remarkable speeds, they have to apply a lot of power with almost perfect synchronization.

Every dip of an oar lines up with those in front and behind, allowing the effort to multiply and build momentum. Without that cooperation within the team, they’ll go in circles or end up drifting.

The rowing analogy in business transformation

It’s no surprise that I see this principle applying in business process management (BPM) and the growing drive towards artificial intelligence (AI) transformation. In my experience, we’re not seeing significant numbers of successful transformation stories, at least not at an organizational level, because many businesses don’t grasp the principle.

Right now, a lot of the focus is on technology, but any AI transformation strategy needs to be built on a solid foundation of process management and enterprise architecture in order to support those new technologies.

Just like a rowing team can’t rely on a single rower to get the boat to the finish line, a single solution approach won’t drive customer value. Leaders need to consider people, technology and processes along with how they work together. If they don’t have all the elements working cooperatively, there’s a very real possibility of things breaking down and causing operational chaos, leaving the business dead in the water.

Process excellence: The missing bridge

Recent research by GBTEC, drawing on insights from 600 global business and operations leaders, shows:

• 95 percent of business and operations leaders state that well-defined business processes are crucial in achieving transformation goals.
• 84 percent state that operational chaos and complexity are the silent killers of business transformation.

Furthermore, 84 percent of respondents believe that process excellence will be a key driver of competitive advantage in the next two years. Four out of five business leaders recognize that the key to making enterprise architecture work is integrating it with effective process management. Otherwise, it becomes, in their words, “expensive guesswork.”

The report highlights how process excellence is the missing bridge for sustainable transformation. Under process excellence, we find:

• Process maturity
• Process governance
• Enterprise architecture alignment
• Embedded governance, risk and compliance
• Automation readiness
• AI enablement

Process maturity allows an organization to elevate the visibility of operational activity and establish effective governance over those practices and procedures. A good process platform helps standardize processes across business units and gives teams access to the levels of information they need for compliance and execution.

That also establishes end-to-end visibility over operations, creating critical frameworks that both give meaning to processes for business teams and provide safeguards for the rollout of technology like AI. Without those structures in place, AI agents can quickly go off the rails, confused by conflicting inputs or incomplete paths between processes.

For many businesses, the rollout of new technologies quickly reveals a lack of confidence in the underlying processes and that severely hampers the transformation initiatives down the line. A lack of process excellence can limit an organization’s capacity to utilize automation tools like advanced AI, reducing the value return on the technology.

AI transformation is fast becoming an essential strategy around the world, but it cannot be applied without real investment in the foundations of a business. Just like rowing, there needs to be power coming from every set of oars to get the most out of the effort being expended. Organizations need clearly defined and well-governed processes that align with a robust enterprise architecture framework to ever get value from these new tools.

Process maturity, expressed in full, unified and visible processes that align with and enable strategic decision-making, is vital to support automation and AI toolsets. Without that foundation, the tools can never deliver the kind of business impact we’re all hoping for and investing in.

To explore the key dimensions leaders must focus on for process excellence and AI-readiness, I encourage you to dive into the report yourself.

Access The 2025 Process Excellence and AI-Readiness Report