Agentic AI drives investment to tackle complex business workflows

PEX Network’s weekly news bulletin rounds up the latest research, reports and publications in operational excellence (OPEX), digital transformation, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation, business process management (BPM), process mining and process intelligence and more.

This week includes:

• Agentic AI interest spikes as businesses tackle complex workflows
• Researchers develop process mining maturity grid for manufacturing and logistics
• FeaturedCustomers ranks BPM software
• Celonis publishes The 2025 Process Optimization Report
• Digital transformation sparks new opportunities in sports media sector

Agentic AI interest spikes as businesses tackle complex workflows

Agentic AI is driving investment to address complex business workflows. That’s according to a new report from UiPath, which found that 90 percent of surveyed US IT executives have business processes that would be improved by agentic AI, with 77 percent planning to spend budget on the technology this year. Respondents cited improved oversight of business workflows (58 percent), increased integration among applications (53 percent) and the automation of complex business workflows (52 percent) as the most appealing business benefits of agentic AI.

The research also discovered that 37 percent of those polled are already using agentic AI, with 93 percent either extremely or very interested in exploring it further. This won’t be without its challenges though, the report suggested. Respondents identified IT security (56 percent), the cost of implementation (37 percent) and integration with existing systems (35 percent) as their top concerns with agentic AI.

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Ultimately, executives see business value from agentic technology that can operate autonomously so long as it is governed, secure and trustworthy, the report found. “Agentic AI is a transformative approach that greatly expands and enhances the ability to automate larger, more complex business processes,” said Daniel Dines, CEO and founder UiPath. "For agentic AI to have meaningful impact, organizations need to provide agents with the needed foundation to intelligently plan and synchronize actions across robots, agents, people and systems, all within enterprise-grade governance and security.”

Max Ioffe, director of the global intelligent automation center of excellence at Wesco Distribution, expects robotic process automation (RPA) to play a key role in orchestrating AI agents. “For larger scale processes, you need clear orchestration and governance, and that means a deterministic technology like RPA.”

Watch Andreas Welsch, author of the AI Leadership Handbook, discuss agentic AI 

Researchers develop process mining maturity grid for manufacturing and logistics

Researchers in Germany conducted a systematic case study review and 12 semi-structured interviews to develop and validate a technology-specific process mining maturity grid for manufacturing and logistics. The resulting grid provides a tool for demonstrating development paths for the application of process mining in organizations, detailing maturity using three focus areas (data input, process mining utilization and integration) structured into five maturity levels.

“Organizations tend to lack experience with novel technologies, which is why they often miss out on opportunities to improve their operations using the insights gained through process mining,” the researchers wrote. Previous research provides methodological guidance on how process mining projects can be conducted and how process mining capabilities can be assessed from an organizational perspective, they added. “This study is the first to contribute to the existing literature by examining process mining capabilities from a technological perspective, focusing on the manufacturing and logistics domain.”

Watch Madison Lundquist, principal research lead, process and performance management at APQC, explore process excellence strategies

FeaturedCustomers ranks BPM software

FeaturedCustomers published the Winter 2025 Customer Success Report in the BPM category, ranking BPM software based on customer reference data. It grouped BPM software providers into three classifications: Market Leader, Top Performer and Rising Star.

• The BPM software providers ranked as Market Leaders include: Appian, Camunda, iGrafx, Nintex, Process Maker and SAP Signavio.
• The BPM software providers ranked as Top Performers include: Bonitasoft, FlowForma, Pipefy and Ultimus.
• The BPM software providers ranked as Rising Stars are BP Logix and Tallyfy.

“BPM software is designed to streamline business workflows and processes to make them more efficient and adaptable to changing scenarios,” the report read. “This empowers businesses to handle whole process life cycles by implementing best practices in their workflows.”

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Celonis publishes The 2025 Process Optimization Report

Process mining and process intelligence vendor Celonis published The 2025 Process Optimization Report. Based on a survey of 1,620 enterprise leaders, the report is divided into five editions including department-specific versions. A key finding is that 79 percent of those polled “urgently” need to better understand how processes work, so they can discover more improvement opportunities and create more value. Meanwhile, improving productivity tops the list for expected outcomes of process improvement, alongside implementing AI, automation and analytics.

The vast majority (89 percent) of respondents stated it is crucial that AI has the context of how their business runs to be effectively deployed with 58 percent concerned that the current state of their processes may limit their use of AI.

Watch psychologist, organizational developer and thought leader Leona Holzbecher reflect on accountability in process management

Digital transformation sparks new opportunities in sports media sector

Digital transformation is triggering significant interest in technology to enhance efficiency and optimization in the sports media industry, according to new data from Altman Solon. The strategy consulting firm surveyed more than 220 global senior sports executives, discovering a shifting focus among sports investors toward technology solutions providers.

Almost two-thirds (62 percent) of those polled identified technology solutions providers as the top investment priority for the next three to five years, aligning with trends driving the modernization of sports media such as innovations in production workflows, fan engagement and digital revenue streams. Meanwhile, the industry must stay relevant to all fan segments, especially younger fans and niche communities, by embracing growth and innovation drivers like AI.

“These investments will accelerate professionalization and value creation through digital transformation as well as diversification of revenue streams by combining an asset optimization view with a portfolio approach,” stated Altman Solon.

Watch Nao Anthony, senior manager in OPEX at Commonwealth Bank, and Tariq Munir, APAC financial planning transformation lead at PepsiCo, discuss the complexities and challenges of digital transformation

READ MORE PEX RESEARCH & REPORTS NEWS

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All Access: Process Mining and Process Intelligence 2025

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