Business process automation
Business process automation is the use of software to carry out the repeatable steps of a defined business process, so the process runs without a person performing each step manually.
What the term covers
The word "process" is doing the important work in this definition. Business process automation applies to work that has a describable sequence: a trigger, a set of steps, decision points with stated rules, and a completed outcome. Sending a quote after a form submission is a process. "Handling customers well" is not — it is a goal made up of many processes, some of which can be automated and some of which cannot.
How it differs from nearby terms
Workflow automation usually describes a single sequence of tasks inside one team or one tool. Business process automation describes an end-to-end process that often crosses systems and teams: marketing to sales to fulfilment to billing. The distinction matters commercially, because the cost and the difficulty sit in the crossings, not in the individual steps.
Why it matters in practice
An automated process is only as good as the description it was built from. Where a process has never been written down, automating it encodes whatever the last person happened to do. That is why the first question in most automation work is a documentation question rather than a technology question.