How to Nail Business Automation in the Agentic Age with Micha Kiener, CTO at Flowable - Modern CTO Recap

Podcast: Modern CTO

Published: 2025-12-22

Duration: 55 minutes

Guests: Micha Kiener

Summary

Micha Kiener, CTO of Flowable, discusses the importance of orchestration over simple automation in business processes and how context engineering can significantly enhance AI outcomes. Flowable's innovative platform has reduced customer onboarding from five days to seven minutes, showcasing the power of efficient process orchestration.

What Happened

Micha Kiener, CTO of Flowable, shares his journey from being a CEO to CTO, driven by his passion for product development. He founded his first company at 14, offering software security in exchange for a faster computer, setting the stage for his future in tech innovation.

Flowable serves as an intelligent business orchestration platform, effectively acting as a 'glue' to integrate different systems and streamline end-to-end business processes without data duplication. Its multi-channel capabilities support varied communication forms like email and real-time messaging, enhancing business flexibility and responsiveness.

The episode highlights a significant achievement by Flowable: reducing a retail onboarding process from five days to just seven minutes. This transformation was achieved by identifying the bottleneck of online identity verification and resolving it, allowing immediate access to e-banking and drastically improving customer retention.

Kiener explains that many companies mistakenly focus on automating isolated tasks without considering orchestration, which leads to inefficiencies. Flowable categorizes agents into four types, including orchestrator agents, which use natural language to solve complex cases by directing other agents and resources.

Flowable's upcoming release will introduce more agent types and the ability to orchestrate external agents via the A2A protocol. This expansion underscores their commitment to enhancing the platform's orchestration capabilities and maintaining enterprise readiness.

The episode also covers Flowable's impact on a European retailer, reducing invoice processing time from 35 days to less than one day, leading to significant savings in cash discounts. This case study exemplifies the tangible financial benefits of effective business process orchestration.

Flowable's recognition by Gartner in the Magic Quadrant for Business Orchestration and Automation Tools marks a significant milestone, positioning it alongside giants like Microsoft and Oracle despite being the smallest vendor.

Kiener emphasizes the importance of context engineering in AI, whereby agents are provided with only the necessary data to optimize outcomes. This approach contrasts with prompt engineering, highlighting a shift towards more intelligent and efficient AI utilization.

Key Insights