Automation has always been about one thing: letting machines take on work that people used to do. From the earliest tools to modern business systems, the goal has been to create more time for humans to focus on what matters most.
Now we’re entering a new era. With agentic AI, it’s possible to automate work that has always been out of reach. Work that required human judgment, context, or deep knowledge. Think about onboarding a client at a global bank, processing trade exceptions, or handling sensitive healthcare cases. These processes involve endless variations and decisions. Until now, they couldn’t be fully automated.
Why this moment matters
AI agents are everywhere right now, whether they’re chat assistants, copilots, or embedded bots in apps. They’re useful, but most are isolated like mushrooms popping up after a rainstorm. Most often, these agents are task-focused, and not built to handle the work enterprises care about most.
That’s why so many projects stall. Research shows that nearly 40% of agentic AI projects will be scrapped by 2027 because they fail to create business value. 77% of leaders are worried about generative AI risks, and 44% have already seen AI produce the wrong output. Despite the hype, only 8% of companies are scaling AI across the enterprise.
Why is this happening? These “mushroom” agents lack orchestration. They operate in silos, without the guardrails or transparency needed to complete mission-critical processes successfully.
Traditional process automation has always involved deterministic orchestration, with well-defined processes, predictable outcomes, and compliance guardrails built in. AI introduces the power of dynamic orchestration, or agents making situational decisions in real time. But by themselves, neither is enough to make enterprise-grade agents work.
The breakthrough is agentic orchestration: the blend of deterministic guardrails with dynamic autonomy. Agentic orchestration makes it possible to trust agents with high-value, high-stakes work. You can dial an agent’s autonomy up or down, add human-in-the-loop controls, enforce governance, and still let AI handle the unexpected.
With this foundation, enterprises can finally break through the ceiling and bring AI into the very heart of their operations.
Making the impossible possible
With Camunda, enterprises are already automating processes that were once considered impossible—processes that required too much judgment, context, or variation to be predefined in a BPMN or DMN diagram.
Take Finnova, the Swiss banking software provider. Onboarding a new customer used to take days, slowed by manual forms, scattered systems, and error-prone checks. Filling out a single form could take 15-30 minutes, creating friction at the very first step of the customer journey.
With Camunda, Finnova combined deterministic flows for document checks and approvals with dynamic agents for background verification. What once took days now takes minutes. The results: 70-80% faster onboarding, a 20-30% boost in customer satisfaction, and delivery of new onboarding solutions six months faster. Employees can now focus on high-value conversations, while customers experience a seamless, proactive start.
WellPointe had a very different challenge as a healthcare provider supporting older adults who often manage 20+ daily medications. Prescription assignment and family communication had historically required heavy manual intervention, creating bottlenecks in order processing and error-prone follow-up with loved ones.
By deploying Camunda’s orchestration with agentic automation, WellPointe achieved:
- 85% increase in process pass rate, eliminating escalation loops that once required constant human touch.
- 15 minutes saved per prescription order, adding up to 3.2 hours saved for every new patient onboarded.
- Enterprise-grade compliance, ensuring every step remains auditable and regulator-ready.
For families, the change is tangible. Updates on medication changes now arrive in real time, creating trust and peace of mind. For the business, operational efficiency has unlocked capacity to quickly onboard new patients and expand market share. What was once a deeply manual, sensitive process is now a foundation for scale.
Stories like Finnova and WellPointe prove that it’s possible to make processes faster, smarter, more compliant, and more human.
And we’re not doing it alone. Partners like EY and Cognizant are helping enterprises scale these outcomes. Together, these partners reinforce how Camunda’s orchestration backbone provides the governance and flexibility enterprises need to automate high-stakes processes responsibly.
Accelerating time to value
Enterprise-grade agents are already delivering measurable value for our customers in weeks, not years. That’s why we’re doubling down on solution blueprints and technology alliances to give customers new ways to accelerate their AI outcomes.
With Camunda 8.8, officially released today, we’ve introduced capabilities that make it faster and safer to design, deploy, and trust AI agents at enterprise scale.
Building the AI-first enterprise
We believe AI agents are the biggest opportunity in business since the rise of the computer. With Camunda, companies can turn AI from experimentation into execution. They can build enterprise-grade agents they trust, automate processes that once seemed out of reach, and do it with the transparency and control their businesses demand.
Automation has always been about progress—moving work from human hands to reliable systems. Agentic orchestration is the next step in that journey. It’s all about creating the conditions for people and agents can achieve more together than either could alone.
The ceiling of automation has cracked. What was impossible yesterday is already possible today. And what feels out of reach now may soon become the new standard.
