Why AI is making workflow automation trendy

Thanks to artificial intelligence (AI) and an industry standard from 2006, the Object Management Group’s Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN) workflow automation looks set for a renaissance. Some 20 years on, BPMN is being used alongside agentic AI to deliver what the industry sees as adaptive process automation. This was a hot topic at the CamundaCon 2026 conference in Amsterdam. During his presentation, Forrester principal analyst Bernhard Schaffrik showed a five-step evolution from basic scripting for workflow to a fully autonomous organisation. “Autonomy is only possible if you directly relate [the workflow] to what’s going on in real time, and your approval process is ideally autonomous,” he said. Speaking to Computer Weekly about his experience of how workflow automation has evolved, James Fernandez, co-CEO of Fairlink , said: “I remember, and I was doing some stuff in logistics, which lends itself to process mapping.” But, he recalls, the workflow tools of the time were ba