Traditional business process management (BPM) must evolve to align with agentic artificial intelligence (AI). That’s a key finding from a new research paper exploring the emergence of agentic AI and its impact on business processes.
The study, based on interviews with 22 BPM practitioners, highlights a clear message: organizations need robust governance to ensure AI agents deliver value responsibly.
Key recommendations include defining clear goals, setting legal and ethical guardrails, enabling human–agent collaboration and ensuring safe integration with fallback mechanisms.
Agentic AI will enhance efficiency, data quality, compliance and scalability
“The rise of generative AI has sparked growing interest in its integration with software agents, giving rise to the concept of agentic AI,” the authors wrote. “While this emerging technology holds promise, its impact on business processes and the requirements for its effective management remain insufficiently understood.”
BPM practitioners expect agentic AI to enhance efficiency, improve data quality, ensure better compliance and boost scalability through automation, the research found. However, they also caution against risks such as bias, over-reliance, cybersecurity threats, job displacement and ambiguous decision-making.
To address these challenges, the study presents six key recommendations for the responsible adoption of AI agents:
- Clarifying business objectives.
- Setting legal and ethical guardrails.
- Enabling effective human-agent collaboration.
- Tailoring agent behavior.
- Managing operational risks.
- Ensuring safe, seamless adoption.
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Aligning traditional BPM with agentic AI
The paper outlines actions to align traditional BPM with agentic AI, including balancing human and agent roles, redefining human involvement, adapting process structures and introducing performance metrics. These insights provide a practical foundation for integrating AI agents into business processes while preserving oversight, flexibility and trust
“Agentic AI introduces new dynamics – autonomy, adaptability and self-learning – that challenge traditional BPM principles centered on structure, control and standardization,” the researchers stated. To align these approaches, organizations should take strategic steps.
“In short, AI agents will reshape business processes – but only if managed with strong governance and accountability. BPM provides the foundation for achieving this,” said paper co-author Hoang Vu, senior staff product manager at SAP Signavio.