™After five lessons on agents, here's the most useful advice in this course: most small business jobs don't need an agent. They need a well-built workflow, sometimes with an AI step in the middle.
What's the difference?
- A workflow follows the same steps every time, in the same order. "When a form is submitted, add the person to the CRM, send a welcome email, and notify the office." It's predictable and easy to check.
- An agent decides its own steps based on the situation. It's flexible, which makes it powerful for messy jobs and harder to predict.
A workflow with an AI step sits in between. The steps are fixed, but AI handles one part that needs language skills. "When an inquiry arrives, AI drafts a reply, then it goes to a person for approval."
When a workflow is the better choice
Choose a workflow when:
- The steps are the same every time
- You need predictable results you can easily check
- Mistakes are costly, so you want to know exactly what will happen
- You want it cheap to run and easy for your team to understand and change
Most admin, data entry, follow-up and reporting jobs fit here.
When an agent earns its place
Consider an agent when:
- The steps vary a lot from one case to the next
- The job needs judgment about which information to find and use
- A person currently handles it by investigating, not by following a checklist
- You can put good guardrails around it
Examples: researching a prospect before a sales call, working through a mixed inbox, or answering detailed questions that need several sources.
Five questions before you build or buy
- Are the steps the same every time? If yes, start with a workflow.
- What happens if it gets one wrong? The higher the cost, the more you want predictability and approval.
- Is the information it needs written down? If not, fix that first.
- Who checks the output, and when?
- How will you know it's working? Time saved, faster replies, fewer errors. Pick one measure before you start.