Flows in Mule allow for orchestration of services by chaining message processors together to automate integration processes. A flow receives messages from a source and passes them through the chain of processors. Each processor can transform or route the message. Flows are useful for simple integration tasks, scheduled data processing, connecting cloud/on-premise apps, and event processing involving multiple services. A flow is configured in XML and has a name, source, processors, and exception strategy. Private flows don't have a source and can only be accessed internally rather than via endpoints.