In 2024, we saw an increasing number of automation and automation-adjacent vendors moving into the process orchestration space through new acquisitions, product launches, and the growing use of AI and machine learning capabilities. Gartner has coined the term business orchestration and automation technologies (BOAT) to describe this convergence of functionality, which is happening across the business process automation (BPA), robotic process automation (RPA), integration platform as a service (iPaaS), and low-code application development platform (LCAP) markets.
Despite market convergence, there are still differentiators between process orchestration and automation tools that make them suitable for different use cases. These are five areas where Camunda is unique in the process orchestration and automation world:
Composability
A composable process automation architecture allows you to select and integrate best-of-breed tools, technologies, and services, so you can ensure that your automation architecture precisely fits your business use case—instead of compromising because of technology limitations.
Camunda’s composable approach:
- Leverages cloud-native technologies such as event streaming and Kubernetes to deliver speed, scale, and resilience
- Allows you to orchestrate any tool or service with a Connector marketplace and a robust Connector SDK that make integration easy as well as fully customizable
- Enables best-of-breed choices without compromise; for example, you can combine Camunda’s native task automation capabilities (such as RPA and IDP) with other tools and custom code for maximum flexibility
According to Nicki Todd, SVP of Technology at First American:
“Camunda’s agile, microservices-based architecture has provided us with the flexibility to rapidly adapt and configure workflows, empowering us to meet customer demands with minimal reliance on engineering.”
Openness
An open architecture is a must for composability. Implementing a process orchestration and automation platform with an open architecture makes it far easier to integrate different tools and systems. This provides IT teams with the flexibility to meet specific business requirements and positions IT as an enabler rather than a blocker.
Camunda has prioritized openness from day one, which means:
- Camunda software fits into your tech stack by working with your teams’ selected source control tooling, CI/CD pipelines, and programming languages
- Leveraging the BPMN and DMN standards for process and decision modeling, facilitating collaboration and alignment between IT and the business and abstracting process logic away from task automation to ensure integration flexibility
- Providing well-documented APIs and SDKs and polyglot Zeebe clients that make integration and customization easier for software development teams
Marko Lehn, Team Lead Software Engineering at Zalando, explains:
“To further automate our business processes, we are using Camunda. The open platform permits the implementation of our individual needs in a way that closed business process management suites just cannot achieve.”
Collaboration
It’s common for IT teams and the business to be misaligned on their understanding of what is required to make progress toward digital transformation goals. According to the 2025 State of Process Orchestration & Automation Report, 62% of IT decision-makers and business leaders say that at their organization, IT and business users cannot easily collaborate on individual processes or projects, and 82% believe that miscommunication between teams leads to the wrong thing being built and rolled out to customers.
In addition to the use of BPMN and DMN, Camunda supports:
- Next-level collaboration because IT and business stakeholders build and test processes in a shared modeling environment
- Reusable processes, decision tables, forms, and connectors that make onboarding new projects and new teams easy
- Integrated intelligence that gives you complete visibility on process health and performance so you can make data-driven improvements
Alexander Lorenzen, Domain Architect at BEC Financial Technologies, says:
“I think of a mortgage process as a constellation of several subprocesses, each of which should be orchestrated by its own right… Using BPMN to model the business process as-is allowed us to bridge the gap between the business and the ‘techies.’”
Scalability
Camunda’s next-generation workflow engine, Zeebe, is designed to accommodate high-throughput use cases out of the box. While traditional workflow engines rely on a central database that causes a performance bottleneck, Zeebe uses event-streaming technology instead, enabling it to deliver unparalleled scalability and performance. It maintains the state of running process instances in a way that scales up with high-transaction volumes, that’s resilient to failures, and that performs well at scale.
With Camunda and Zeebe, you’re guaranteed:
- Unlimited horizontal scalability because Zeebe’s use of event streaming avoids database bottlenecks and can scale process throughput infinitely
- Enterprise-grade resilience thanks to a distributed architecture that ensures continuity in the case of hardware or network failure
- A failover architecture that supports replication across global data centers for high availability worldwide
Intuit is an excellent example:
“We want to reach the point where Camunda handles all our volumes. We expect this to be in the tens of millions of process instances, every single day. Camunda 8 is cloud-native, so we can add instances easily and always maintain enough headroom to handle an unexpected peak.”
Intelligence
AI is already changing the way companies do business. According to PwC’s 2024 Cloud and AI Business Survey, 41% of respondents said they’ve already seen improved customer experiences through the use of generative AI and 40% reported that they’ve achieved increased productivity.
When it comes to the role of AI/ML tools in core business processes, almost all of the IT and business leaders we spoke to for the 2025 State of Process Orchestration & Automation Report believe that AI will need to be orchestrated within automated business processes just like any other endpoint.
Camunda can help you prepare for the increasing importance of AI in business processes:
- Apply AI/ML where it makes sense without sacrificing reliability or regulatory compliance
- Avoid creating AI technical debt by integrating AI/ML tools and services into existing end-to-end business processes
- Camunda’s assistive AI features such as copilots put process designers on the fast track to value delivery
Jakob Freund, CEO and Cofounder of Camunda, is optimistic about the potential for AI in process automation, but he warns:
“One piece of advice: Make sure to sort out your operations architecture today (both business and technology!), because ‘just throwing in AI’ will make things worse, not better. Put in a process orchestration layer that gives you the flexibility to plug in AI where it makes sense today and might make sense tomorrow. There are plenty of real-world examples of organizations that did that successfully and are now on a path to systematically adopt AI on the enterprise level.”
Be ready for the future
Our advanced capabilities in these key areas make Camunda a powerful platform for process orchestration, not only today but also in the future. As the process orchestration and automation market evolves, we remain focused not only on maintaining our current advantages but on preparing ourselves and our customers for the future.
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