This week in process excellence

There were multiple big headlines in the news this week, with artificial intelligence (AI) a common trend throughout our coverage.

On Monday, our Research & Reports round-up explored new data showing that businesses with AI-led processes outperform peers in several ways. According to research from Accenture, three-quarters of businesses have seen investments in generative AI and automation meet or exceed expectations, with 63 percent planning to increase their efforts and further strengthen these capabilities by 2026. The number of companies that have fully modernized AI-led processes has nearly doubled from nine percent in 2023 to 16 percent in 2024, with these organizations achieving 2.5-times higher revenue growth and 2.4-times greater productivity compared to competitors.

Meanwhile, the Global Banking Benchmark Study by Publicis Sapient found that banks continue to face multiple obstacles to digital transformation with budget constraints, regulatory challenges and lack of operational agility all major issues. Based on customer and operational leadership, only 11 percent of surveyed banks were classified as transformation leaders, down from 22 percent in the previous survey. We also covered new research on the effectiveness of process mining for optimizing hospital emergency department efficiency and how domain knowledge unravels business process metrics.

On Wednesday, our Vendor bulletin rounded up the latest news and updates from a raft of industry vendors. SAP announced the launch of new capabilities that enhance its generative AI copilot, Joule. These include collaborative AI agents imbued with custom skills to complete complex cross-disciplinary tasks, enhancing productivity by breaking down silos and freeing workers to concentrate on areas where human ingenuity thrives. Elsewhere, Microsoft unveiled several AI innovations designed to connect care experiences , enhance team collaboration, empower healthcare workers and unlock clinical and operational insights. “We are at an inflection point where AI breakthroughs are fundamentally changing the way we work and live,” said Microsoft’s Joe Petro. “Across the broader healthcare and life sciences industry, these advancements are dramatically enhancing patient care and also rekindling the joy of practicing medicine for clinicians.”

In other news, process automation vendor ABBYY announced the relocation of its global headquarters from California to Austin, Texas , joining other leading tech companies like Google, Apple, Tesla and Oracle in the region’s growing “Silicon Hills.” Intelligent document processing (IDP) vendor Rossum entered a strategic partnership with KPMG Netherlands to help finance leaders achieve measurable results from their document automation initiatives, Celonis and Appian made new leadership hires and Kissflow was names a “top vendor” for workflow automation at the GEC Awards 2024 .

On Friday, we closed out the week with our Community news, warning that some of the world’s most prominent AI models are falling short of incoming EU regulations. Reuters reported on a new LatticeFlow tool that tests generative AI models across dozens of categories in line with the EU’s AI Act, which comes into force in different stages over the next two years. Its Large Language Model (LLM) Checker uncovered shortcomings in key areas, spotlighting where companies may need to divert resources to ensure compliance.

We also covered multinational brewing brand HEINEKEN showcasing its digital transformation achievements as well as winning the OutSystems Innovation – High Performance Team Award for hyperautomation. “This award is a huge recognition for our team and extended federated teams that enable us to bring amazing value to the organization leveraging low-code technology,” said HEINEKEN’s Giada Binelli.

British supermarket giant Sainsbury’s took a significant step towards achieving its target of Net Zero operations by 2035 with a new energy partnership with Capital Dynamics, French biopharmaceutical company Ipsen earned its second Gold Shingo Prize for operational excellence (OPEX) and ALDI advertised a new process intelligence data analyst opportunity at its IT department in Prestons, New South Wales, Australia.

Finally, American manufacturer of confectionery Mars Inc., appointed Marina F. Bellini to lead operations, global business services and enterprise digital technologies across the organization , while the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) in Lyngby, Copenhagen, hosted the sixth International Conference on Process Mining (ICPM 2024).

Wishing you all a great end to the week and we’ll be back with more of the latest news headlines next week!