Majority of organisations fear 'digital chaos'

Camunda has released its 2025 State of Process Orchestration and Automation Report, revealing 82% of organisations fear “digital chaos” due to increasingly complex, interconnected, and automated processes. The report highlights that organisations now manage an average of 50 endpoints to execute tasks that are part of a process in their business. This is an increase of 19% over the past five years, and is contributing to growing business risk.

According to the report, a lack of control has increased compliance risks for 82% of organisations, while 77% report higher risks of core business processes failing. Alarmingly, 82% believe that, if these risks go unchecked, they could lead to what could be described as “Automation Armageddon.”

“End-to-end process orchestration and automation are critical to delivering business outcomes. However, today’s digital infrastructures and processes are both complex and interdependent, making it a significant challenge,” said Kurt Petersen, senior vice president, customer success, at Camunda. “In a constantly evolving landscape, organisations often struggle with siloed tools and technologies, which hinder their ability to streamline operations or achieve full visibility. Without decisive action, automation programs risk overwhelming organisations with fragile solutions, lack of comprehensive governance, excessive total cost of ownership, and increasingly reduced agility to meet changing business needs. Ultimately, companies who can’t get their automation under control will lose out to savvy competitors who have mastered process orchestration and automation.”

AI: the scaling and operationalising challenge

Artificial intelligence is transforming business operations as organisations leverage large language models (LLMs), machine learning, or other AI capabilities to enhance operations and improve customer experiences. However, in many cases, AI is only deployed as a point solution to tackle a single task, rather than supporting a business-wide strategy. While most organisations are eager to expand their AI capabilities in the next three years, they face significant challenges in effectively scaling and operationalising AI.

The report reveals:

85% of organisations face challenges in scaling and operationalising AI across their business.

84% say a lack of transparency in applying AI applications within business processes is causing regulatory compliance issues.

93% believe AI must be fully integrated into orchestrated processes to maximise the return on investment and business value.

Unlocking value through process orchestration

Many organisations have implemented significant automation but often face challenges in effectively managing it across diverse systems and processes. Successful organisations unlock value from automation by leveraging process orchestration as a critical capability for coordinating the moving parts or endpoints of a business process and sometimes even integrating multiple processes.

The report highlights:

82% of businesses recognise the need for better tools to manage how their processes intersect.

79% report that, while they have implemented significant automation, they lack a way to control, manage, and sustain it effectively.

86% say a company cannot have hyperautomation without having process orchestration.

81% say, without process orchestration, achieving an autonomous enterprise will be a pipe dream.

“If organisations are to successfully operationalise AI across their entire business, AI applications and services must be orchestrated like any other endpoint within automated business processes. This will ensure they remain compliant and maximise the return on investment from their AI investments. Process orchestration is the key to managing complexity, connecting legacy systems, and coordinating diverse endpoints. Without it, hyperautomation and the autonomous enterprise will remain out of reach for most organisations," added Petersen.