The modern business landscape demands more with less: faster growth, greater efficiency, and stronger results—often with the same or fewer resources. Competing in this environment depends on how effectively processes are designed, executed, and improved over time.
That’s where business process automation comes in. Digital systems can streamline workflows, reduce manual effort, and increase consistency, making automation essential for organizations to scale and succeed.
As artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning become more embedded in business operations, automation raises important strategic questions. Not every task should be fully automated. As Harvard Business School professors Karim Lakhani and Iavor Bojinov emphasize in their online course AI for Leaders, AI often creates the most value when it augments human judgment rather than replacing it—challenging leaders to rethink where automation ends, and intelligent support begins.
What Is Business Process Automation & Why Does It Matter?
Business process automation (BPA) is the use of software and technology to automate repetitive tasks and orchestrate workflow automation across tools, teams, and systems. By reducing manual effort and standardizing execution, automation improves speed, accuracy, and consistency, making it a foundational element of modern digital transformation strategies.
For many organizations, the value of automation first appears in operational gains. “When we talk about technology adoption, especially AI, it’s easy to focus on what it helps us do faster,” Bojinov says in AI for Leaders. “Tasks like document generation, scheduling, or data analysis get easier. These outcomes are valuable; they improve day-to-day execution and free up resources. We often measure them in hours saved, cost reduced, or cycle time shortened.”
But operational efficiency alone doesn’t create competitive advantage. An organization can automate extensively without improving the impact of its work.
“Strategic benefits require alignment: the right capabilities, leadership, and culture to turn efficiency into transformation,” Bojinov says in AI for Leaders. “The key difference is that operational benefits make you more efficient, while strategic benefits can make you more differentiated, resilient, or scalable.”
AI-Powered Business Process Automation vs. Augmentation
Traditional automation is most effective for repetitive and predictable tasks. AI-powered business process automation expands this model by adding intelligence to workflows, enabling systems to learn from data, interpret information, and adapt as conditions change. As a result, many organizations assume that if something can be automated, it should be.
As AI becomes embedded in business processes, leaders must decide when to fully automate work and when to augment human skills with AI. As Lakhani explains in AI for Leaders, “When we introduce AI into a process, we face a critical design question: Should the AI replace human judgment, or support it? That’s the core distinction between automation and augmentation.”
Automation allows systems to act independently; for example, routing routine service requests or filtering spam without human involvement. Augmentation uses AI to surface insights or recommendations while holding humans accountable for decisions. In hiring, for instance, AI might screen resumes to identify qualified applicants, while a hiring manager evaluates fit and makes final selections.
In practice, the most effective approach depends on a task’s frequency and value. High-frequency, low-value tasks are strong candidates for full automation, where speed and consistency matter most. Lower-frequency or higher-value tasks—especially decisions involving risk, ethics, or customer relationships—benefit from augmentation, where AI provides scale and direction while humans retain decision authority.
To adopt AI effectively, organizations must understand not only the technical requirements for success but the strategic implications of how automation and augmentation shape decision-making, accountability, and competitive advantage.
How AI Automation and Augmentation Build Competitive Advantage
Organizations that integrate AI into their processes intentionally are better positioned to operate faster, make stronger decisions, and achieve sustainable growth. The true advantage of AI automation and augmentation lies not in efficiency alone, but in the strategic benefits that extend beyond day-to-day operations.
Speed and Efficiency
AI automation accelerates frequent, repeatable tasks by recognizing patterns and executing work faster than manual processes. Simultaneously, AI augmentation helps employees work more efficiently by prioritizing to-dos, flagging exceptions, and suggesting next steps, enabling teams to focus where it matters most.
Decision Support
AI enables leaders to move beyond intuition and experience, incorporating real-time data, predictive models, and scenario analysis into decision-making. By augmenting human judgement, organizations can act earlier, analyze trade-offs more effectively, and shift from reactive to proactive decision-making, especially in dynamic environments.
Scalability
Strategic AI adoption supports scalable growth without a proportional increase in operating costs. Automating or augmenting routine tasks allows operations to run more smoothly as demands increase, while freeing hiring budgets to focus on roles that drive creativity, innovation, and leadership—areas AI can’t replace.
An Empowered Workforce
Adopting AI is as much a workforce strategy as it is a technology decision. AI-empowered employees are equipped with better information, clearer context, and greater control over their work.
Automation reduces low-impact, repetitive tasks that drain employees’ time and attention. Augmentation equips teams with intelligent support at key decision points. Together, they enable employees to focus on creative thinking, problem-solving, and growth-driving activities with greater confidence and clarity.
Real-World Business Process Automation and Augmentation Examples
VideaHealth offers one example of an AI-native company designed around augmentation. Founded to help dental clinicians identify issues in X-rays that might otherwise be missed, the company’s technology supports better clinical judgment rather than replacing it—improving patient outcomes while preserving accountability.
“We’re not actually replacing dentists with AI,” says Dan Bachiochi, vice president of engineering at VideaHealth, in AI for Leaders. “We’re helping dentists provide better care to their patients because they’re not as stressed. It’s easier for them to find the things that they really need to act on.”
Similar opportunities exist across industries. Siemens, a global leader in industrial automation and software, uses AI-powered predictive maintenance to monitor factory equipment, detect anomalies, and anticipate failures before they occur.
By surfacing insights rather than making decisions outright, Siemens’ approach helps address workforce skill gaps while keeping humans in the loop. Maintenance technicians receive timely, data-backed guidance, then apply their expertise to determine when and how to intervene. The result is improved safety, reduced downtime, and stronger operational resilience, without automating humans out of the process.
Finding Competitive Advantage in the Balance
Business process automation has traditionally focused on efficiency. With AI, it has become a question of how organizations compete. The goal is not to automate everything, but to evaluate workflows with intention.
By identifying tasks suited for automation, decisions that benefit from AI support, and opportunities to equip employees with intelligent tools, organizations can achieve operational gains while elevating human contribution. This balance allows teams to focus on innovation, leadership, and differentiation—the true drivers of long-term competitive advantage.
If you’re ready to design smarter processes and apply AI where it creates the most value, explore AI for Leaders. For those who want to go further, AI for Leaders is also part of the six-month Credential of Digital Innovation and Strategy. To find the digital transformation and AI program that best aligns with your goals, download our free course flowchart.
