Autonomy in business process execution: why we need first-class abstractions for goals and normative framesVisa övriga samt affilieringar
2025 (Engelska)Ingår i: CEUR Workshop Proceedings / [ed] Fabiana Fournier; Lior Limonad; Giuseppe De Giacomo; Andrea Marrella; Antonella Guzzo; Antonio Ielo, CEUR-WS , 2025, artikel-id 6Konferensbidrag, Publicerat paper (Refereegranskat)
Abstract [en]
With the increased deployment of AI-based technologies—recently and most notably large language models—framing the autonomy of goal-oriented agents that enact business processes can be expected to be a key challenge. In this paper, we argue that addressing this challenge requires new formal foundations for process specifications. Traditional business process specifications focus on the how of business operations and treat neither goals nor norm-based constraints as first-class abstractions. Although goals play a central role in informal notions of business processes, formal definitions tend to treat them as implicit, embedded within procedural specifications that may only partially, and not explicitly, reflect normative boundaries. However, to maximize autonomy within a given normative frame, which expands upon the traditional idea of process models as operational frames, agents require formally specified goals, from which they can then synthesize their plans and actions, considering the normative frame as a set of deontic constraints. In this paper, we articulate this vision, highlight practical challenges, and propose action items for supporting its implementation.
Ort, förlag, år, upplaga, sidor
CEUR-WS , 2025. artikel-id 6
Serie
CEUR workshop proceedings, ISSN 1613-0073 ; 4087
Nyckelord [en]
AI agents, Autonomous agents, Autonomy, Business process management, multi-agent systems
Nationell ämneskategori
Datavetenskap (datalogi)
Identifikatorer
URN: urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-251828Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-105033942143OAI: oai:DiVA.org:umu-251828DiVA, id: diva2:2056671
Konferens
4th International Workshop on Process Management in the AI Era, PMAI 2025 2025 -co-located with the 28th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence, ECAI 2025, Bologna, Italy, October 25, 2025.
Forskningsfinansiär
Wallenberg AI, Autonomous Systems and Software Program (WASP)2026-04-302026-04-302026-04-30Bibliografiskt granskad