“We want an AI agent” is a common request, and often the real need is simpler. Chatbots, workflows and agents solve different problems, and picking the wrong one is how projects become expensive, slow or unreliable.
The three in plain terms
Workflow: a fixed path
A workflow follows steps you define: when a form arrives, classify it, look up the customer, create a task, send a reply. AI may power one or two of the steps, but the route is fixed. This is the most predictable and the easiest to test.
Chatbot: a conversation
A chatbot is an interface where people ask questions and get answers, usually from your own documents. It is ideal for support questions, product guidance and internal help desks.
Agent: a goal and some tools
An agent is given a goal and a set of tools, and decides for itself which steps to take, for example researching a topic, drafting a report and updating a record. It is flexible, and also the hardest to keep reliable.
How to choose
- Do you know the steps in advance? Use a workflow.
- Do people mainly need answers from your content? Use a chatbot grounded in your documents.
- Is the task open-ended and different every time? Consider an agent, with strict limits.
Many good solutions combine them: a chatbot answers questions, and when someone wants a quote it hands off to a workflow that creates the lead.
What to ask before you build
- 1What decision or task are we improving, and how will we measure it?
- 2What is the cost of a wrong answer?
- 3Which of our data does it need, and who may see it?
- 4Where does a human check or take over?
- 5How will we test it with real examples before customers see it?
Not sure which you need? Describe the problem and we will recommend the simplest approach.