Call for Papers

Process Automation technologies are rapidly transforming how organizations execute and manage business processes. Ranging from lightweight, low-code/no-code tools to advanced systems combining human expertise with Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML), Natural Language Processing (NLP), and Large Language Models (LLMs) solutions, the spectrum of process automation offers both significant opportunities and complex challenges. This workshop aims to provide a holistic perspective on process automation, addressing both the managerial and engineering aspects from a Business Process Management (BPM) perspective. 

We invite you to submit original papers to be considered for inclusion in the workshop. After a short opening, the workshop will continue with a first session of paper presentations and discussions. The second session will feature a keynote talk by Prof. Andrea Marrella on the relationship between AI agents and software robots, exploring whether AI agents represent a replacement for or a (re-)evolution of RPA and how software robots could develop bounded artificial agency. The keynote will be followed by an interactive roundtable discussion, open to anyone interested, addressing the evolving relationship between RPA, software robots, and AI agents, and discussing the technical, organizational, and broader implications of this transition. 

Topics of Interest

We invite submissions exploring visionary, empirical and practical perspectives on managing and implementing both lightweight and advanced process automation solutions. Contributions may address, but are not limited to, the following topics:

Foundations and frameworks

• Frameworks for integrating lightweight, AI-enabled, and agentic process automation into BPM.

• Automation-aware process modeling, analysis, and lifecycle management.

• Strategies to balance agility, compliance, and governance in process automation initiatives.

Governance, organization, and human factors

• Governance models and organizational structures for lightweight and agentic process automation.

• Stakeholder perspectives (IT, citizen developers, business units, compliance, end users).

• Approaches for addressing security, compliance, and privacy challenges in automation solutions.

• Skills, training, and capability development for automation and agentic systems.

Human-in-the-loop and human–agent collaboration

• Human-in-the-loop approaches for lightweight, AI-enabled, and agentic process automation.

• Design and evaluation of human–agent collaboration patterns in BPM.

• Transparency, explainability, and trust in agentic process automation.

Technical innovations and applications

• Applications of generative AI and LLMs in RPA, process automation, and agentic workflows.

• Orchestration and control of LLM-based agents in business processes.

• Applications of ML and neuro-symbolic techniques in lightweight and advanced automation tools.

• Applications of conversational AI integrated into process automation workflows.

• Proactive synthesis of software robots for an autonomos behavior.

• ML (including deep learning) for discovering routines to be automated and semi-supervised or unsupervised segmentation of user interaction logs in RPA.

Case studies

• Case studies of process automation and agentic process automation implementations across industries and organizational sizes.

• Role of contextual factors (e.g., organizational size, industry type, governance maturity) in shaping the success of automation approaches.

• Longitudinal and mixed-method studies on the impact of lightweight and agentic automation in BPM.