From Automation to Autonomisation: How to Capitalise on Empowered Processes
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3127/ajis.v29.6059Keywords:
Provocation, Business process management, Process design, Process autonomisation, Agile- BPM, Data-driven-BPM, Artificial intelligenceAbstract
Process automation has been a cornerstone of organisational success, driving competitiveness through enhanced effectiveness and efficiency. While automation remains a key focus, the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML) and the Internet of Things (IoT) provides entirely new process design options and as such demands new skills and approaches in Business Process Management (BPM) to maintain relevance and competitiveness. This paper extends current BPM paradigms by introducing the concept of “process autonomisation,” a new paradigm that empowers organisations to make decisions autonomously using real-time data and adaptive business contexts. By critically examining existing BPM methodologies and highlighting key innovations, we propose strategies for evolving process management frameworks - emphasising agility, data-driven decision-making, and seamless digital integration. To thrive in the digital age, we argue, organisations must rethink their BPM practices. We call on both academic and industry stakeholders to collaborate on pioneering advancements in BPM and co-develop a roadmap that will help organisations align their process management with the ongoing digital transformation reshaping industries.
References
Adomavicius, G., & Tuzhilin, A. (2005). Toward the next generation of recommender systems: a survey of the state-of-the-art and possible extensions. IEEE Transactions on Knowledge and Data Engineering, 17(6), 734-749. doi.org/10.1109/TKDE.2005.99
Alter, S. (2008). Defining information systems as work systems: implications for the IS field. European Journal of Information Systems, 17(5), 448-469. doi.org/10.1057/ejis.2008.37
Alter, S. (2014). Theory of Workarounds. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 34(55), 1041-1066. doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.03455
Barker, R. C. (1994). The Design of Lean Manufacturing Systems Using Time-based Analysis. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 14(11), 86-96.
Davenport, T. H. (2023). Hyper-Personalization for Customer Engagement with Artificial Intelligence. Management and Business Review, 3(1-2), 29-36. doi.org/10.1177/2694105820230301006
Dumas, M., Fournier, F., Limonad, L., Marrella, A., Montali, M., Rehse, J.-R., Accorsi, R., Calvanese, D., Giacomo, G. D., Fahland, D., Gal, A., Rosa, M. L., Völzer, H., & Weber, I. (2023). AI-augmented Business Process Management Systems: A Research Manifesto. ACM Trans. Manage. Inf. Syst., 14(1), Article 11. doi.org/10.1145/3576047
Dumas, M., La Rosa, M., Mendling, J., & Reijers, H. A. (2018). Fundamentals of business process management (2 ed.). Heidelberg: Springer.
Dumas, M., van der Aalst, W. M. P., & ter Hofstede, A. H. (2005). Process-Aware Information Systems. Bridging People and Software Through Process Technology Hoboken: Wiley.
Fan, H., & Poole, M. S. (2006). What Is Personalization? Perspectives on the Design and Implementation of Personalization in Information Systems. Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, 16(3-4), 179-202. doi.org/10.1080/10919392.2006.9681199
García-Borgoñón, L., Barcelona, M. A., García-García, J. A., Alba, M., & Escalona, M. J. (2014). Software process modeling languages: A systematic literature review. Information and Software Technology, 56(2), 103-116. doi.org/10.1016/j.infsof.2013.10.001
Greene, T., Shmueli, G., & Ray, S. (2023). Taking the Person Seriously: Ethically Aware IS Research in the Era of Reinforcement Learning-Based Personalization. Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 24(6), 1527-1561. doi.org/https://aisel.aisnet.org/jais/vol24/iss6/6
Grisold, T., Janiesch, C., Röglinger, M., & Wynn, M. T. (2024). Managing Dynamics in and Around Business Processes. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 66(5), 533-540. doi.org/10.1007/s12599-024-00895-2
Hammer, M., & Champy, J. (1993). Reengineering the corporation. A manifesto for business revolution. New York: HarperCollins.
Harmon, P. (2019). Business Process Change (4 ed.). Waltham: Morgan Kaufmann.
Jeston, J., & Nelis, J. (2008). Management by process. A roadmap to sustainable business process management. London: Elsevier.
Kerpedzhiev, G. D., König, U. M., Röglinger, M., & Rosemann, M. (2021). An Exploration into Future Business Process Management Capabilities in View of Digitalization. Business & Information Systems Engineering, 63(2), 83-96. doi.org/10.1007/s12599-020-00637-0
Leyer, M., Stumpf-Wollersheim, J., & Kronsbein, D. (2017). Stains on the bright side of process-oriented organizational designs. An empirical investigation of advantages and disadvantages. Schmalenbach Business Review, 18(1), 29-47.
Mumford, E. (2006). The story of socio-technical design: reflections on its successes, failures and potential. Information Systems Journal, 16(4), 317-342. doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2575.2006.00221.x
Nordsieck, F. (1931). Aufgabenverteilung und Instanzenbau im Betrieb. Grundprobleme und Grundprinzipien der Organisation des Betriebsaufbaus II. Die Betriebswirtschaft, 24(7), 204-210.
Nordsieck, F. (1961). Betriebsorganisation. Betriebsaufbau und Betriebsablauf. Stuttgart: Poeschel.
Rosemann, M., Brocke, J. v., Van Looy, A., & Santoro, F. (2024). Business process management in the age of AI – three essential drifts. Information Systems and e-Business Management, 22(3), 415-429. doi.org/10.1007/s10257-024-00689-9
Setiawan, M. A., & Sadiq, S. (2013). A Methodology for Improving Business Process Performance through Positive Deviance. International Journal of Information System Modeling and Design (IJISMD), 4(2), 1-22. doi.org/10.4018/jismd.2013040101
Shi, L., Liu, J., Li, Y., & Foutz, N. Z. (2025). Ephemeral State-Dependent Recommendation for Digital Content. Information Systems Research, 0(0), null. doi.org/10.1287/isre.2022.664
Strong, D. M., & Volkoff, O. (2010). Understanding Organization?Enterprise System Fit: A Path to Theorizing the Information Technology Artifact. MIS Quarterly, 34(4), 731-756. doi.org/10.2307/25750703
van der Aalst, W. M., & van Hee, K. M. (1995). Framework for business process redesign. Proceedings 4th IEEE Workshop on Enabling Technologies: Infrastructure for Collaborative Enterprises (WET ICE'95),
Wurm, B., Goel, K., Bandara, W., & Rosemann, M. (2019). Design Patterns for Business Process Individualization. In T. Hildebrandt, B. F. van Dongen, M. Röglinger, & J. Mendling (Eds.), (Vol. 11080, pp. 370-385). Springer International Publishing. doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26619-6_24
Xu, H., Luo, X., Carroll, J. M., & Rosson, M. B. (2011). The personalization privacy paradox: An exploratory study of decision making process for location-aware marketing. Decision Support Systems, 51(1), 42-52. doi.org/10.1016/j.dss.2010.11.017
Zhu, Y.-Q., & Kanjanamekanant, K. (2021). No trespassing: exploring privacy boundaries in personalized advertisement and its effects on ad attitude and purchase intentions on social media. Information & Management, 58(2), 103314. doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2020.103314
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2025 Wasana Bandara, Michael Leyer, Michael Rosemann

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.
AJIS publishes open-access articles distributed under the terms of a Creative Commons Non-Commercial and Attribution License which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and AJIS are credited. All other rights including granting permissions beyond those in the above license remain the property of the author(s).