AI agents use large language models and autonomous tools to automate and optimize business processes. They help increase employee productivity and enable more self-sufficient user experiences. Use cases range from IT service desk automation to specialized industry solutions that support goal-oriented tasks.

Most agentic platforms focus on assisting individuals by automating tasks based on natural language prompts. However, work rarely happens in isolation. Traditional business process management (BPM) platforms, on the other hand, coordinate activities across multiple people but often lack AI-driven autonomy.

IBM watsonx Orchestrate brings these two approaches together. It enables organizations to design agentic workflows where AI agents and people collaborate to complete end-to-end processes. Agents handle repetitive and time-consuming work, engaging humans only when input, judgment, or approvals are required.

Streamline collaborative business processes

Many business processes depend on collaboration, such as escalations, fulfillment, reviews, and approvals. These processes are often manual, inconsistent, and subject to delays.

For example, a large organization might require managers to perform recurring salary and performance reviews. Managers are expected to initiate reviews regularly, but missed or delayed actions can lead to inconsistencies and reduced employee satisfaction.

With watsonx Orchestrate, you can automate this process:

• Schedule reviews to start automatically
• Notify managers only when action is required
• Enable agents to gather relevant employee data
• Provide decision support aligned with corporate guidelines
• Automatically route approvals to higher-level managers when needed
• Notify employees with a summary of outcomes

This approach ensures consistency, reduces administrative burden, and improves the overall employee experience.

Increase efficiency with parallel processing

Agentic workflows also improve efficiency in document-heavy processes. For example, agents can process large volumes of documents concurrently and flag only those that require human review.

This parallel processing model ensures that:

• Work continues without bottlenecks
• Individual document reviews do not delay overall progress
• Throughput increases significantly

Scale more use cases with agentic workflows

IBM watsonx Orchestrate enables a broader range of use cases compared to agent-only platforms. It supports:

• Multi-step workflows involving AI agents and human participants
• Process scheduling and automation
• Parallel task execution
• Intelligent document processing

By combining AI-driven autonomy with structured workflow orchestration, watsonx Orchestrate helps organizations scale automation across complex, collaborative business processes.

Find out more about Watsonx Orchestrate agentic workflows and sign up for a free trial.

Written by @Dennis Parrott