Workflow automation or an AI agent: which one do you need?

If you could write the task as a checklist that is always followed the same way, it is a workflow. If it starts with reading something a person wrote and deciding what it means, part of it needs an agent.

What each one is

• Workflow automation

  Fixed steps triggered by an event. When a form arrives, create a task, notify the owner, and set a reminder. The same input always gives the same result.

• AI agent

  Software given a job and tools. It reads each case, decides what to do next, and acts within limits. Two different invoices may take two different paths.

How to tell them apart

• If the inputs always arrive in the same shape, use a workflow.
• If someone has to read and interpret each one, that step needs an agent.
• If the result must be identical every time, use a workflow.
• If cases differ in ways no rule can list in advance, use an agent with a person reviewing.

What each costs you

A workflow costs less to build and run, and it is easy to check because it does the same thing every time. It breaks, or does the wrong thing, when an input does not fit the rule.

An agent copes with variety, but it can be wrong in ways a fixed rule cannot. It needs testing on real past cases, limits on what it may do alone, and a person reviewing its work at the start. It also has a running cost for every case it reads.

Most projects use both

Take the email that arrives after closing. Reading each message and deciding whether it is a real request is a job for an agent, because every email is worded differently. Everything after that is a workflow: create the task, assign it by type, attach the original, and remind the owner if it sits too long.

Building it this way keeps the uncertain part small: the agent does one narrow thing, and the steps around it stay fixed.

A rule of thumb

Start with the workflow, and add an agent only at the step where a fixed rule fails.