A review of AI and machine learning contribution in business process management (process enhancement and process improvement approaches)

Abstract

PurposeThe significance of business processes has fostered a close collaboration between academia and industry. Moreover, the business landscape has witnessed continuous transformation, closely intertwined with technological advancements. Our main goal is to offer researchers and process analysts insights into the latest developments concerning artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) to optimize their processes in an organization and identify research gaps and future directions in the field.Design/methodology/approachIn this study, we perform a systematic review of academic literature to investigate the integration of AI/ML in business process management (BPM). We categorize the literature according to the BPM life-cycle and employ bibliometric and objective-oriented methodology to analyze related papers.FindingsIn business process management and process map, AI/ML has made significant improvements using operational data on process metrics. These developments involve two distinct stages: (1) process enhancement, which emphasizes analyzing process information and adding descriptions to process models and (2) process improvement, which focuses on redesigning processes based on insights derived from analysis.Research limitations/implicationsWhile this review paper serves to provide an overview of different approaches for addressing process-related challenges, it does not delve deeply into the intricacies of fine-grained technical details of each method. This work focuses on recent papers conducted between 2010 and 2024.Originality/valueThis work addresses a significant gap by employing a pioneering approach to introduce challenges in BPM alongside AI/ML techniques and integrated tools. Hence, it offers comprehensive guidelines that elucidate the alignment between ML methods and solutions to current challenges across the BPM life-cycle, including process enhancement and process improvement. Additionally, by detailing various aspects of the life-cycle phases and highlighting ML technique characteristics, this research demonstrates potential approaches for future exploration, thereby enhancing applicability for both process analysts and researchers in this context.