How Can Business Process Owners Use Agentic AI?

Business Process Owners (BPOs) can use Agentic AI to improve business processes by starting with recurring problems, identifying work an AI agent could handle, and measuring whether performance improves. 

Key Takeaways 

• Start with a recurring process problem, not an AI product. 
• Look for work that requires investigation, follow-up, and coordination. 
• Decide what an AI agent can do independently and where team members must remain involved. 
• Measure improvements in process performance, not just the number of automated activities. 

Where Should a Business Process Owner Start? 

Most BPOs already know where their processes struggle. 

Invoices require manual investigation. Customer disputes take too long to resolve. Team members spend hours looking for missing information or following up with other departments. 

These are familiar problems, and many persist despite investments in ERP systems, workflow tools, robotic process automation (RPA), AI, and chatbots. 

Agentic AI offers another way to address them. 

Unlike automation that follows a fixed sequence of rules, an AI agent can potentially gather information, evaluate what needs to happen next, and perform several related activities within defined limits. 

For a BPO, a useful starting question is: What work is my team still doing to keep the process moving after our existing automation has finished? 

What Could an AI Agent Actually Do? 

Consider a common accounts payable problem: an invoice cannot be processed because it fails a match or validation check. The cause could be a two-way or three-way match failure, incorrect costing, or incomplete vendor setup. A discrepancy in payment terms or another issue may also be responsible. 

Today, a team member may need to investigate the exception and review the relevant records. They may then contact purchasing, accounts payable, or the vendor to request clarification or corrections before following up until the issue is resolved. 

An AI agent connected to the appropriate systems could potentially perform much of this investigative work. 

It could retrieve records and identify the likely cause of the exception. Using an approved channel, it could also request missing information and track the issue until it is resolved or requires human intervention. 

If the issue requires a financial decision, a change to vendor information, or an exception to established policy, the agent could refer it to an authorized team member. 

The team would spend less time collecting information and following up, and more time resolving issues that require judgment. 

The value of Agentic AI may not come from replacing an existing automated transaction. It may come from handling the work surrounding that transaction. 

How Much Should the Agent Be Allowed to Do? 

Not every invoice exception should be handled in the same way. 

An agent might independently retrieve purchase order records, check receiving information, identify a missing approval, or prepare a request for documentation. 

But correcting financial information, modifying vendor records, authorizing payments, or approving exceptions to established policies may require human review and authorization. 

The BPO should work with IT, finance, and control teams to define which activities an agent can perform independently. They should also establish when an issue must be referred to a team member or another process team for resolution. 

Start by allowing the agent to investigate exceptions and recommend actions while authorized team members make the final decisions. As results are validated, consider allowing the agent to perform additional activities independently. 

The objective is not maximum automation. It is resolving more exceptions accurately and efficiently while maintaining appropriate controls. 

How Will the Business Process Owner Know It Is Working? 

The answer should come from the process measures the Business Process Owner already uses. 

For accounts payable, those might include invoice processing time, exception rates, cost per invoice, and late payments. 

Before introducing an agent, establish a baseline for resolving different types of exceptions. Record how many require repeated follow-up and how much team effort the investigation demands. 

Then determine whether the agent is helping the team resolve exceptions faster, reduce manual follow-up, and improve processing accuracy without creating additional errors or rework. 

The Business Process Owner must also consider what happens to the team capacity created. 

Will team members have more time to address complex exceptions? Can the organization process greater invoice volumes without adding resources? Will the cost per invoice decline? 

An agent investigating 1,000 invoice exceptions is a measure of activity. Fewer unresolved exceptions, shorter processing times, and reduced costs are measures of process improvement. 

What Should a Business Process Owner Do Next? 

Start with one recurring problem that the team understands well and that can be measured. 

For accounts payable, that might be a particular category of invoice exceptions that regularly requires manual investigation and repeated follow-up. 

Ask the team to map how it resolves those exceptions. Capture the information team members retrieve, who they contact, and which decisions they make. 

Then explore whether an AI agent could perform some of those activities using existing systems and information. 

Begin with a limited test. Keep the team involved, review the exceptions, and compare the results against current performance. 

If the agent reduces effort and improves results without weakening controls, consider expanding its responsibilities or applying the approach to other exception categories. 

BPOs do not need to become AI technologists to benefit from Agentic AI. They need to understand their business processes, identify where AI agents can help, and measure whether the results improve. 

The best use of Agentic AI is not necessarily the most sophisticated. It is the one that solves a measurable process problem the BPO is already responsible for fixing.