Business automation platforms (BAP) automate business processes and operations across enterprises to improve performance and reduce costs. These platforms can streamline different parts of the business, including customer relationship management, supply chain management, and financial operations.
BAPs increasingly align with the emerging Business Orchestration and Automation Technologies (BOAT) market by combining workflow orchestration, integration, automation, process intelligence, and AI-driven decisioning capabilities within a unified platform. Rather than focusing on a single automation technology, these platforms support coordinated, end-to-end business execution across systems, applications, data, and users. This includes automation tools like robotic process automation software (RPA) to design, orchestrate, and manage automation across an organization, and low-code development platforms that allow developers to create, test, and deploy applications with minimal manual coding efforts. BAPs also support enterprise connectivity through APIs and integrations to enable seamless data flow and workflow coordination across departments and business systems.
Some BAPs also use process mining tools and task mining to analyze existing processes and identify optimization and automation opportunities across projects. They incorporate artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and agentic automation capabilities to automate processes that require predictive decision-making, intelligent recommendations, or autonomous actions. BAPs also provide data analytics, monitoring, and reporting capabilities to support process intelligence, operational visibility, and data-driven decision-making.
To qualify for inclusion in the Business Automation Platforms (BAP) category, a product must:
- Provide end-to-end process automation and orchestration, allowing projects and workflows to seamlessly flow across systems, tasks, and users with minimal employee intervention
- Streamline coding processes to enable both professional and non-technical developers to develop applications and automate workflows
- Offer a visual interface with pre-built components to enable workflow and application development with minimal hand coding
- Integrate with other enterprise tools such as CRM software and ERP tools through APIs, integrations, or connectors to automate workflows across different departments
- Support orchestration and coordination of business processes across multiple systems and applications
- Include AI, ML, or agentic automation capabilities to enable intelligent automation and decision-making
- Provide process intelligence features such as process mining, task mining, monitoring, analytics, or optimization capabilities to identify inefficiencies and improve business operations
