Business Process Management (BPM) has long been synonymous with structure, control, and continuous improvement. Yet as artificial intelligence reshapes how organizations operate, BPM’s role is evolving far beyond efficiency — it’s becoming the framework through which enterprises teach machines how to think, act, and align with human intent.
The latest PEX Network report, created in partnership with ARIS, explores this transformation in depth. Drawing insights from over 200 BPM leaders, the study reveals how process management is taking center stage in the age of digital and AI-driven disruption.
BPM’s Renaissance: Why It Matters Now More Than Ever
The data tells a powerful story. More than half of surveyed organizations (53%) consider BPM their primary enabler of transformation. A third plan to increase BPM investments over the coming year — nearly double last year’s rate.
And this is just the beginning. The BPM market is projected to expand from $21 billion in 2025 to over $70 billion by 2032. Behind these numbers lies a fundamental truth: as organizations automate and delegate more decisions to machines, process becomes the new language of governance.
From Efficiency to Intelligence
For years, BPM has been the discipline of optimization — eliminating friction, enforcing standards, improving flow.
But in the AI era, it has become something greater: the connective tissue between intelligence, accountability, and adaptability.
The report highlights several pivotal shifts that are redefining BPM’s value:
1. Governance for Intelligent Systems
AI doesn’t eliminate the need for governance — it amplifies it. BPM ensures that automated decisions remain transparent, compliant, and explainable. It anchors ethics and control in systems that increasingly act on their own.
2. Resilience Through Adaptability
When disruption becomes constant, adaptability is the only sustainable advantage. BPM enables organizations to model, test, and evolve processes dynamically — not reactively.
3. Human Knowledge at Scale
Every process map, workflow, and rule captures expertise that might otherwise disappear in the churn of change. BPM turns that tacit knowledge into a living, evolving organizational asset.
4. Responsible AI by Design
Ethics can’t be bolted on later. Embedding fairness, oversight, and compliance into AI systems starts at the process level — where BPM naturally operates.
5. Proof in Practice
The report surfaces case studies from manufacturing, healthcare, and beyond, where BPM and AI already work in tandem to enhance efficiency, mitigate risk, and accelerate innovation.
A Call to Rethink the Role of BPM
The findings invite every leader to reconsider how they view BPM. It’s not a legacy discipline; it’s a strategic capability for intelligent transformation — one that bridges human judgment and machine learning, order and exploration, governance and growth.
BPM, in essence, is how organizations teach machines to respect business logic. And as AI becomes more capable, that logic will define the boundaries between automation and autonomy.
Download the full PEX report to explore data, frameworks, and strategic recommendations for making BPM your foundation for responsible AI transformation.
Beyond the Report: Learn from the BPM Pilgrim
To continue the conversation, play our on-demand webinar featuring J-M Erlendson, the “BPM Pilgrim.”
In this session, Erlendson reflects on his journey across Japan — a metaphor for change and transformation — and distills practical lessons for navigating the emerging agentic era, where humans and AI collaborate through process.
Discover how leading organizations are using BPM not only to optimize work — but to reimagine how intelligence flows through their business.
Klemens Hauk on
Hi,
ok, what the report is talking about is far, far away from today's daily practice. We are fighting to bring organizations on a level that they think process oriented, that they work based on documented processes using BPMN and that they continuously measure the process performance to react if the process value goes down. And now with AI we can forget this? We are starting a dream where the report is saying that "humans and intelligent agents coexist, complementing each other's strength". Nice words but as I said in the beginning this has nothing to do with the reality in most companies I know. "Moving beyond BPM" is the goal cited in the report but it is fully unclear what does this mean for a practitioner. Erlendson is requesting BPMN 3.0 saying it should be increased by a "palette for AI-focused guidelines". Does anybody working on BPMN 3.0? And Roovers says "BPM has centered on high level process models" and that "today's demands go much deeper". How deep should we go? Do we think about an AI agents that organizes the work for us? Ok, than we can stop our efforts and wait on this wonder and CFOs can freeze any budget for BPMN projects and wait. And I am not talking about AI regulations and data regulation acts on EU level.
What is the situation in the Software ARIS company? It's good to have a vision but you have to work to make the vision reality. Vision without concrete steps to reach it, is an "illness" as a former German politician said. Is AI companion your way? No, if I understand the report (the actual performance of the text-to-model approach is - to say it positive - at most a first step and will not become better as long as you working with prompting of standard LLMs and not train your own LLM BPMN specific). Is Process mining your way? This helps only companies having enough data to analyze their processes and it does not support any AI agents. Will you bury ARIS as tool? Then you can bury Software ARIS AG as company.
Sorry, but this report coming from high level Software AG representatives (CPO, VP) and published in the ARIS community does nobody help.
This is may opinion and I am highly interested reading any feedback here. Let's start the discussion.
Regards
Klemens