BOCHUM, Germany--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 29, 2025--
Despite heavy investment in AI and automation, most organizations lack the operational maturity needed for success. GBTEC’s newly published landmark research, The 2025 Process Excellence and AI-Readiness Report, reveals the critical role of process excellence in enabling successful business transformation powered by automation and AI. Drawing on insights from 600 senior business and operations leaders across ANZ, Europe, and North America, the report identifies challenges, opportunities, and best practices for organizations seeking to thrive in the era of automation and agentic AI.
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The research shows that while nearly all organizations are investing in AI and automation, only a minority have the operational foundations necessary to fully realize their transformation ambitions. Less than 20% of organizations have reached the highest level of process maturity, described as “AI-powered,” with proactive process management, collaborative AI, and human-machine interaction.
“More and more companies are buying into the concept of process-based transformation – understanding their current state before they start to transform,” noted Scott Leddy, Vice President, North America, GBTEC. “But many organizations overlook their processes and are surprised when automation and AI projects don’t deliver the expected results.”
Process Excellence as the Missing Foundation
The report identifies six key factors for achieving process excellence:
Among these, aligning processes with enterprise architecture stands out as critical. Enterprise architecture refers to the structured framework that connects an organization’s business processes with its IT systems and applications, ensuring they work together effectively. In fact, 83% of business and operations leaders agree that enterprise architecture without process alignment is “just expensive guesswork,” while 85% say transformation efforts fail without clear, end-to-end process visibility.
AI Ambitions Exceed Operational Readiness
The research also emphasizes the growing importance of AI. Over the next two years, 61% of leaders plan to integrate agentic AI – self-directed, task-aware AI agents – into operations, with 32% aiming to deploy them across end-to-end processes. Yet less than half of organizations currently have processes mature enough for seamless AI integration.
Alexander Trail, Senior Account Executive, Northern Europe, GBTEC, emphasized: “Automation programs that aren’t aligned to process management are essentially flying blind. Leaders can only achieve the efficiencies AI promises if their processes are fully documented, visible, and strategically governed.”
This report is the first in GBTEC’s global series on process excellence and AI readiness, offering organizations insights on sustainable transformation and to maximizing the value of automation and AI.
For further information or to download the full report, please visit https://www.gbtec.com/whitepaper/global-process-excellence-and-ai-readiness-report-2025/.
About GBTEC Group
GBTEC is a leading provider of SaaS software in the fields of Business Process Management (BPM), Enterprise Architecture Management (EAM), Digital Process Automation (DPA), and Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC). The extensive product portfolio of GBTEC includes Business Process Design & Modeling, Process Execution, Process Mining, as well as Governance, Risk, and Compliance (GRC). The company is known for its modern and user-friendly products, which are based on no-code and low-code technologies and a state-of-the-art product platform. Customers also benefit from competent customer support and comprehensive training offerings. The products of GBTEC are used by companies of all sizes, from SMEs to Fortune 500 companies, as well as by public institutions. The company is headquartered in Bochum and employs around 300 employees at locations in the DACH region, Spain, Australia, the UK, the USA and Saudi Arabia. For more information, see https://www.gbtec.com/.
The GBTEC report outlines six key factors essential for process excellence and AI readiness.
KOTZEBUE, Alaska (AP) — The low autumn light turned the tundra gold as James Schaeffer, 7, and his cousin Charles Gallahorn, 10, raced down a dirt path by the cemetery on the edge of town. Permafrost thaw had buckled the ground, tilting wooden cross grave markers sideways. The boys took turns smashing slabs of ice that had formed in puddles across the warped road.
Their great-grandfather, Roswell Schaeffer, 78, trailed behind. What was a playground to the kids was, for Schaeffer – an Inupiaq elder and prolific hunter – a reminder of what warming temperatures had undone: the stable ice he once hunted seals on, the permafrost cellars that kept food frozen all summer, the salmon runs and caribou migrations that once defined the seasons.
Now another pressure loomed. A 211-mile mining road that would cut through caribou and salmon habitat was approved by the Trump administration this fall, though the project still faces lawsuits and opposition from environmental and native groups. Schaeffer and other critics worry it could open the region to outside hunters and further devastate already declining herds. “If we lose our caribou – both from climate change and overhunting – we’ll never be the same,” he said. “We’re going to lose our culture totally.”
Still, Schaeffer insists on taking the next generation out on the land, even when the animals don’t come. It was late September and he and James would normally have been at their camp hunting caribou. But the herd has been migrating later each year and still hadn’t arrived – a pattern scientists link to climate change, mostly caused by the burning of oil, gas and coal. So instead of caribou, they scanned the tundra for swans, ptarmigan and ducks.
Caribou antlers are stacked outside Schaeffer's home. Traditional seal hooks and whale harpoons hang in his hunting shed. Inside, a photograph of him with a hunted beluga is mounted on the wall beside the head of a dall sheep and a traditional mask his daughter Aakatchaq made from caribou hide and lynx fur.
He got his first caribou at 14 and began taking his own children out at 7. James made his first caribou kill this past spring with a .22 rifle. He teaches James what his father taught him: that power comes from giving food and a hunter’s responsibility is to feed the elders.
“When you’re raised an Inupiaq, your whole being is to make sure the elders have food,” he said.
But even as he passes down those lessons, Schaeffer worries there won’t be enough to sustain the next generation – or to sustain him. “The reason I’ve been a successful hunter is the firm belief that, when I become old, people will feed me,” he said. “My great-grandson and my grandson are my future for food.”
These days, they’re eating less hunted food and relying more on farmed chicken and processed goods from the store. The caribou are fewer, the salmon scarcer, the storms more severe. Record rainfall battered Northwest Alaska this year, flooding Schaeffer’s backyard twice this fall alone. He worries about the toll on wildlife and whether his grandchildren will be able to live in Kotzebue as the changes accelerate.
“It’s kind of scary to think about what’s going to happen,” he said.
That afternoon, James ducked into the bed of Schaeffer’s truck and aimed into the water. He shot two ducks. Schaeffer helped him into waders – waterproof overalls – so they could collect them and bring them home for dinner, but the tide was too high. They had to turn back without collecting the ducks.
The changes weigh on others, too. Schaeffer’s friend, writer and commercial fisherman Seth Kantner grew up along the Kobuk River, where caribou once reliably crossed by the hundreds of thousands.
“I can hardly stand how lonely it feels without all the caribou that used to be here,” he said. “This road is the largest threat. But right beside it is climate change.”
Follow Annika Hammerschlag on Instagram @ahammergram.
The Associated Press receives support from the Walton Family Foundation for coverage of water and environmental policy. The AP is solely responsible for all content. For all of AP’s environmental coverage, visit https://apnews.com/hub/climate-and-environment
Roswell Schaeffer, an Inupiaq hunter and fisher, takes his great-grandson James Schaeffer, 7, and James' cousin Charles Gallahorn, 10, hunting in Kotzebue, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
James Schaeffer, 7, plays with a slab of ice taken from a pond that formed on a warped road caused by thawing permafrost in Kotzebue, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
Charles Gallahorn, 10, plays with a slab of ice taken from a pond that formed on a warped road caused by thawing permafrost in Kotzebue, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
Charles Gallahorn, 10, plays with a slab of ice taken from a pond that formed on a warped road caused by thawing permafrost in Kotzebue, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
James Schaeffer, 7, looks out at a view of Kotzebue, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
James Schaeffer, 7, plays on a road where thawing permafrost has caused the ground to warp in Kotzebue, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
James Schaeffer, 7, plays on a road where thawing permafrost has caused the ground to warp in Kotzebue, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
James Schaeffer, 7, hunts in Kotzebue, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
Roswell Schaeffer, an Inupiaq hunter and fisher, helps his great-grandson James Schaeffer, 7, into waders while hunting Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
Roswell Schaeffer, an Inupiaq hunter and fisher, looks over caribou antlers from past hunts at his home in Kotzebue, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
James Schaeffer, 7, hunts in Kotzebue, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
James Schaeffer, 7, runs through a cemetery where thawing permafrost has caused grave markers to tilt and the ground to warp in Kotzebue, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
Roswell Schaeffer, an Inupiaq hunter and fisher, visits the cemetery where thawing permafrost has caused grave markers to tilt in Kotzebue, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
Roswell Schaeffer, an Inupiaq hunter and fisher, helps his great-grandson James Schaeffer, 7, scope ducks while hunting in Kotzebue, Alaska, Friday, Sept. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Annika Hammerschlag)
