AI and Processes
Issue 2024
The thread that connects process owners and analysts with generative AI
The bigger picture: Addressing changing complexities
Charting the future of business transformation with generative AI and SAP Signavio solutions
What’s trending
Five predictions: How generative AI can increase the efficiency of BPM
Companies can reengineer and redesign processes to accommodate agility by leveraging generative AI. The first of the five predictions is – through allowing AI to handle routine tasks, humans will be focusing more on strategic thinking and problem-solving, making businesses more efficient. Further, AI’s natural language capabilities revolutionize data-driven decisionmaking, while AI democratizes usage across non-technical fields such as marketing, finance, and customer service. Gen AI advances automation and governance, boosting efficiency and oversight. Also, it elevates data visualization to be more dynamic and interactive, facilitating better understanding and smarter decisions. These transformations make processes more intuitive, fundamentally changing how we think and work.
Phase-one launch of process AI capabilities: A deep-dive conversation with Gero Decker
Generative AI is a disruptive game changer reshaping the BPM industry.
At the SAP Sapphire of 2024, SAP unveiled new process AI capabilities for SAP Signavio solutions aimed at delivering fast insights and adapting swiftly. These innovations include a process recommender for best practices and a text-driven process analyzer for broader user engagement. These capabilities make sophisticated analysis accessible to non-technical users, increasing participation and improving decision-making.
SAP Signavio solutions, leveraging SAP’s extensive data and expertise, provide a unique AI approach. Discover more in the exclusive interview with SAP Signavio General Manager, Gero Decker.
Fast track process design with instant AI-powered recommendations
The latest SAP Signavio suite release has introduced a process recommender capability that provides AI-generated business process model recommendations, pointing customers to the most relevant best practice process models for their business needs.
Process owners can now type their questions in natural language and receive ready-to-use process model recommendations, which can be adopted directly or customized further. By harnessing SAP’s extensive repository of best practices, drawn from thousands of customer implementations, process owners no longer need to start from scratch. Partners are an integral part of our innovation journey. One partner reveals how they already contribute.
Foreword
Generative AI can act as a catalyst for transformation. It provides suggestions that experts can build on, and it acts as a knowledge and capacity multiplier, making people’s work easier and helping them perform it faster. Nearly every process that makes up an organization – including finance, sales, procurement, supply chain management, and more – can benefit from the capabilities generative AI offers if integrated correctly.
At the same time, generative AI can streamline and speed up the work of transforming business processes themselves by offering rapid insights into process flows. It also provides recommendations for process improvements and can lowering the entry barriers to disciplines such as business process analysis.
From the work of business transformation overall, right down to the granular process level, the question is not whether to use generative AI, but how to do so most effectively.
Simply put, generative AI is a transformative force with the potential to impact every facet of modern organizations. This e-book serves as a guide to understanding this impact, so encourage you to consider the suggested podcasts, blogs, and webcasts contained within this e-book closely as a starting point for your own engagement with this important and timely topic. In that way, you, too, can take advantage of generative AI’s possibilities.
Pulse check
How do IT experts respond when asked about
The SAP LeanIX solutions team recently surveyed 226 organizations about their use and management of generative AI. The results showed that companies still have a long way to go when it comes to effective AI governance. In fact, while 80% of companies are now using generative AI, only 14% have the visibility and overview they need for proper governance, security, compliance, and data tracking and collection. This finding jeopardizes long-term value for these companies, putting their generative AI aspirations on a sandy foundation.
90% of IT experts say they need a clear view of AI use in their organizations
14% say they actually have the overview of AI that they need
What is the biggest obstacle standing in the way of effective AI governance?
Why are concerns about data security preventing extensive use of generative AI?
What remains as the persistent challenges of collecting AI usage data across the organization?
Why do so few companies feel they can comply with AI regulations?
Take a look at SAP LeanIX AI Survey Results 2024 and discover
Dee Houchen Head of Market Impact, SAP Signavio and SAP LeanIX, SAP SE
Five predictions on how generative AI can increase the velocity of business process transformation
Sapphire: An interview with Gero Decker
The thread that connects process owners and analysts with generative AI
Written by: James Dyson
As organizations integrate generative AI into their process transformation initiatives, process experts, including process owners and analysts, face crucial questions about the role of AI. How can they best apply it in their daily work? Also, what are its implications, benefits, and governance model? The innovation potential is immense, and humans are in the lead.
II n this journey, it is still humans who are in the driver’s seat, orchestrating the transformation management. Generative AI can support in the background, executing complex tasks creatively and providing crucial insights while relying on the command of human intuition and decision-making. This balance allows for a dynamic, intelligent interplay, highlighting the pivotal role of process experts while applying AI’s strengths.
The greatest innovation potential lies not in full automation but in scenarios where generative AI complements human judgment. Now, organizations need to focus on how to integrate AI in a tight feedback loop with human input, which, although challenging, offers the most promising results.
Business process management
(BPM): A pathway for this journey Imagine a scenario where a process owner oversees a supply chain. With the integration of generative AI, tasks like demand forecasting, inventory management, and logistics optimization can become more efficient. AI can help process owners and analysts examine vast datasets, identify patterns, and generate actionable insights that might otherwise be difficult to unveil. Also, AI can use large datasets and best practices to instantly deliver guided recommendations on the process models to adopt, which can be used “as is” or as a foundation that process owners can further perfect.
While generative AI gives recommendations, its application is guided by a
process expert. The process expert then sets the strategic vision and makes final decisions based on a combination of AI-generated data and human experience. This means that the technology amplifies human capabilities rather than replacing them, including nontechnical roles, as users can adopt natural language to extract highly relevant insights.
If we look at the intersections between BPM and AI, we believe that the following use cases will be the foundation of a new generation of BPM discipline and software:
Building knowledge repositories
Leverage external knowledge, documents, images, diagrams, and textual prompts to facilitate the rapid creation of process assets.
Making recommendations Answer common questions such as “How should I start modeling my order-tocash process?” or “How can I track late payments in process mining?” in a contextualized and on-demand manner.
Initiating transformations: Create transformation and improvement initiatives by automatically applying process knowledge and performance data in process mining and process modeling.
Generating insights Analyze data and derive business and technical insights with minimal effort and time investment, and democratize process mining by empowering users to obtain valuable knowledge that can inform business decisions using a questionand-answer approach.
It is still humans who are in the driver’s seat, orchestrating the transformation management
Can generative AI help process owners master this complexity? We believe it can! Find out more in this blog “Generative AI: How business process owners can benefit.”
Levelling the ground for process owners
Embracing AI demands a mix of freedom and guardrails, empowering employees while safeguarding corporate data. It’s like setting a framework for freedom to be creative within a structured routine to ensure consistency, accuracy, and safety. Process owners ought to establish clear guidelines for AI usage, better ensuring transparency, ethical considerations, and compliance with regulations.
Process owners equipped with generative AI can continuously analyze the process and get optimization suggestions.
The bigger picture addressing changing complexities
Modern business transformation was never about adopting new technologies alone; it’s always been about navigating complex changes that redefine entire paradigms. As generative AI reshapes various sectors, businesses are beginning to witness a transformation marked by unique complexities. This is not just a straightforward automation upgrade but also a shift that mirrors principles from complexity science. maintaining (and possibly increasing) efficiency and customer satisfaction. This is no small feat.
The variability confronting modern organizations has made the role of transformation managers and process experts both more strategic and complex. Factors such as the race toward digitalization, the emergence of new business models, and stricter compliance and sustainability requirements necessitate constant process adaptation. Transformation managers and process experts need to facilitate these changes while
Adapting to AI is a complex change and requires different methods for evaluation and change management.
Dave Edwards, cofounder of Artificiality, in his article, “The value of generative AI is in complex change.”
Yet, this development poses unique challenges. We spoke to Dave and Helen Edwards, cofounders of Artificiality – a platform dedicated to untangling AI’s impact on individuals, organizations, and society – and also one of our guests on the Process Transformers podcast. They believe in using complexity science to guide organizations through the multifaceted changes introduced by generative AI.
Key complexity features include emergence, adaptation, dynamism, openness, self-organization, and feedback sensitivity, among others. These features highlight the evolving nature and interconnected
influences of generative AI in business transformation.
Effective adoption requires embracing these complexities, recognizing that generative AI adoption paths are fundamentally open and flexible, driven by human-machine confluences and continuous feedback.
For those looking to delve deeper into harnessing the potential of generative AI for process optimization, our article, “Step into the Future: Harness the Power of Generative AI for Process Optimization,” offers an outlook on the future direction.
Read the following report to discover: How does your enterprise function? How can you tackle the big what-if questions?
Andre Wenz, the head of SAP Signavio Product and Engineering, explains, “In the past, digitalization and innovation focused on automating processes to go faster, cheaper, and better. While those goals remain relevant, the true potential of generative AI lies in its ability to create a company that otherwise would not have existed.”
To find the answers more easily, create a digital twin of an organization (DTO) with the help of comprehensive solutions including strong AI capabilities.
DTO market trends and vendors from a trusted, global analyst firm
The strengths that led to SAP Signavio solutions’ highest rating for customer impact and technology excellence categories
Why Quadrant names SAP Signavio solutions as a Leader
SAP Signavio: A Leader in the SPARK Matrix™ Report for Digital Twin of an Organization (DTO) Solution, 2024
Charting the future of business transformation with generative AI and SAP Signavio solutions
In an era where disruption has become the norm, steering your enterprise through the labyrinth of business change can be daunting. However, using technology such as generative AI can help evolve this challenging journey into a navigable road map.
Modern businesses pursue numerous objectives such as achieving resiliency, optimizing processes, and seeking enhanced insights to determine their next steps. Business process management (BPM) solutions are expected cater to these demands. The first and second generation of BPM solutions were focusing on managing collaborative process models, and process mining and analytics respectively. Now, generative AI has emerged as a
disruptive shift in BPM. This latest shift is already being reflected in our offering to our customers. SAP Signavio solutions are designed with a vision in mind to help organizations achieve their maximum potential through constant, AI-powered business transformation.
The value of AI for businesses increases dramatically when combined with industry-specific data and deep process knowledge. With SAP Signavio solutions, businesses will naturally benefit from five decades of SAP’s
expertise in aiding businesses in all major industries. The AI capabilities within SAP Signavio solutions focus on the three core principles that are being applied across all AI capabilities from SAP: relevance reliability and responsibility to safeguard your transformation journey. So, your business transformation will become not just manageable but also rewarding, as you will have more time to focus on your firm’s unique differentiators and gain more creative impulses, faster.
This aspect makes generative AI the main catalyst for the new generation of business transformation management solutions. It has started to make process experts rethink the world of possibilities, because when we look at the process transformation domain, there is still so much more to explore!
Unlocking potential with SAP Signavio solutions
SAP Signavio solutions enable businesses to swiftly understand, improve, and transform their processes, helping ensure they stay ahead of the curve. Mastering business transformation in the age of AI isn’t just about surviving – it’s also about thriving. Companies that can quickly identify inefficiencies, optimize workflows, and make data-driven decisions are poised to dominate their fields.
To transform effectively with AI, check out our on-demand webcast, “Mastering complex process transformation in the age of AI ” This session delves into the AI vision and strategy, with Lukas Egger, VP of Product Strategy & Innovation, SAP Signavio, SAP SE, offering a broad perspective on navigating the intricate landscape of business process transformations.
Do you wonder …
whether you observe all parts of the process?
Whether you observe the process exactly in the way it occurs in reality?
Whether you are aware of how process participants experience the process?
For those keen on diving deeper into the practical aspects of our innovative solutions, our other webcast, “Harnessing the power of generative AI for business process transformation,” offers a closer look. This webcast focuses on the advanced generative AI capabilities of SAP Signavio solutions, detailing how they improve business process transformation.
Read more about why process and enterprise observability matter.
What is business process observability and why does it matter?
Transform swiftly with the new process AI capabilities for SAP Signavio solutions
To support customers with business transformations and operational excellence, SAP Signavio solutions bring you new capabilities integrated with generative AI in a reliable, responsible, and relevant way.
To support businesses with business transformations and operational excellence, SAP Signavio solutions bring you new capabilities integrated with generative AI in a reliable, responsible, and relevant way. The process AI capabilities for SAP Signavio solutions will strengthen your organization’s capacity to swiftly transform business processes with ease and confidence to sustain its growth in the future. However, as it is only just the tip of the iceberg, there is much more waiting to be unearthed!
Get process recommendations swiftly, efficiently and easily
Think of the process recommender capability as your AI assistant, equipped with a database of 5,000 best practices from SAP.
When you are looking to design or optimize processes, the process recommender capability dives right in, offering instant, expert-level recommendations. By using instant process recommendations, you move
quickly from initial exploration to a precise process design tailored to match your specific business needs. Imagine being able to accelerate your process modeling without the heavy lifting. That’s how the process recommender capability can help –it brings you preconfigured process models, narrows down choices, and presents you with the best options in no time.
Ask for actionable insights in natural language
Imagine being able to ask any question about your processes in plain, natural language and get immediate, actionable
insights. That’s exactly what the AI-assisted process analyzer capability enables. Whether you’re a data expert or a business user with no technical background, you can easily dive into process mining.
The process analyzer capability is designed to democratize process mining. It empowers users to detect correlations and anomalies in their data, making sophisticated analysis accessible to everyone. The increased accuracy and relevance of the analysis output based on your queries helps ensure that you get the most pertinent
information to inform your business decisions.
Available in our beta program, the process analyzer stands ready to elevate your process mining efforts.
Recommendations from a vast repository of KPIs and PPIs: Think of the AI-assisted performance indicators recommender as your quick access to the most relevant process performance indicators (PPIs). It offers immediate recommendations tailored to your specific business processes and problems. By using a vast repository
of thousands of KPIs and PPIs, let us make it simple for you to move from identifying a problem to establishing a measurement approach.
You will get instant recommendations grounded in best practices. This self-service approach to defining your initial process monitoring framework makes it efficient and straightforward to monitor performance.
Imagine setting up meaningful metrics with low effort – that is the performance indicators recommender capability at your service.
Webcast Acceleration Economy
Join this webcast to explore SAP Signavio solutions and the AI roadmap for the process world with SAP experts and Acceleration Economy. The webcast continues with an SAP Signavio solutions demo and company on a page view, showing consolidated KPIs on one screen with a wide range of metrics tracked.
