You Walk Into a Bar with Automation, AI Workflow, and AI Agent

You want a beer. Which one of your companions should you send to the bar?

Everyone’s rooting for “AI agents” right now. Still, Gartner predicts 40% of these projects will fail by 2027.

Why?

I think one key challenge is that as the technology currently develops at lightning speed, it’s hard to really know who you are working with (or walking into a bar).

So we probably should take a closer look at our protagonists.

Automation

You’ve told it before that your regular is Stella so it walks straight to the bartender: “One Stella, please.”

That’s it. No questions asked. Thirty seconds later, you have your beer. Done.

Bill: $5

This is the beauty of automation—it’s fast, cheap, and reliable. When you know exactly what you want, you just need it executed. Think for example onboarding automation: send welcome email, provision accounts, add to systems. You know the steps, you want same things happen consistently to every single new hire. Just to get them done.

The limitation? Any variation breaks the system. If you say “something refreshing” instead of “Stella,” you get an error message. Automation needs precise instructions. But when you have precise instructions, automation is brilliant. Don’t let anyone convince you it’s “not AI enough” to be useful. Sometimes doing the same thing every time is exactly the right strategy.

AI Workflow

AI Workflow doesn’t just take your order—it helps you make a better choice.

“You want a beer? Let me look at the menu… they have a great IPA on special today, and it actually pairs better with what you had for lunch. Plus it’s happy hour, so it’s only $8. Should I get you one?”

You still get a beer. It’s still from the bar’s menu. But you made a smarter decision within those constraints. This is the sweet spot for most “AI” projects.

Bill: $8

Let me give you a real example: calendar scheduling. Imagine you need to schedule a meeting across five people, three time zones, and two conference rooms.

The automation part still does the heavy lifting:

Check everyone’s calendars
Filter for overlapping free time
Verify room availability
Calculate time zone conversions

The AI part then makes the smart choice: “Which of these five possible slots is actually best?” It can consider things like time of day preferences, meeting fatigue, travel time between rooms—all the nuanced factors that make one 2pm slot better than another, although more subjectively.

The structure exists. The process is clear. You just need some intelligence at the decision points. That’s AI Workflow.

The limitation? You’re still working from a menu. AI Workflow can’t question whether you should be scheduling meetings at all.

AI Agent

This is where things get interesting.

AI Agent doesn’t just help you order. It starts asking questions: “You seem stressed. Have you eaten today? What does your schedule for evening look like? Let me think about this strategically…”

Before you can stop it, it’s off: “Actually, there’s a great restaurant two blocks away. Should we eat first? Then maybe catch that movie at 8pm you mentioned last week? Or we could plan drinks with your friends tomorrow instead when you’re less tired? Let me map out your whole evening…”

You: “No thanks, I just want a beer.”

AI Agent: “Ah, okay, let me order you a Stella.”

Bill: $300

Here’s what happened: You asked for help getting a beer, but the AI Agent heard “help me have a great evening.” It’s not a simple order-taker—it’s your personal assistant responsible for optimizing your whole night.

Think of it like delegating to a human assistant.

We can “upgrade” our calendar scheduling example with more autonomy for the AI: You don’t set scheduling a meeting as the goal. Instead, you give a more advanced goal like “manage my schedule so that I can achieve 5-10 hours of high quality focused work each week”.

You then equip the agent with the tools to achieve it (calendar access, your meeting preferences, feedback mechanism) plus some boundaries (“check with me before declining a 1:1 with my boss”). Then you let it figure out HOW.

It manages the strategy:

When to schedule blocks (it’s learning you’re useless at deep work right after lunch)
For how long (discovering you’re most productive in 1.5 hour chunks)
Which days (figuring out that three deep works sessions on a day with 5 meetings is not a good idea)

This is easily worth the $300 if your goal IS to “have a great evening” and you ARE willing to let the assistant take the lead.

But if you’ve already decided to get a beer, you’re massively overpaying for something you didn’t need.

So Which One Do You Actually Need?

Start with these questions:

Can you list most of the steps?
Yes? Start with Automation.
”But we need some intelligence!” → AI Workflow.

Do the steps change every time?
No? Still Automation or AI Workflow.
Yes? Keep reading…

Can you define success without defining the steps?
No? You’re describing a workflow, not an agent use case.
Yes? Keep going…

Are you willing to completely rethink the process from scratch?
No? Don’t use an agent. You’ll just get an expensive workflow.
Yes? One more question…

Is the end result significant enough to justify higher cost and higher risk of failure?
Marginal gains? Stick with workflow.
10x potential and you can accept failure risk? Consider an agent.

Many “I need an AI agent” requests are actually “I need to automate my current process with maybe some smart decisions.” That’s a workflow. And that’s perfectly fine! Workflows are great. They’re what most businesses actually need, for now.

The Lesson

You need all three approaches.

Automation when you know what you want, it executes perfectly. $5 beer, zero fuss.

AI Workflow bringing craft and quality. Smart decisions where it matters, without reinventing the wheel. $8 beer, better choice.

AI Agent to create the premium experience—when you actually need your whole evening optimized. High touch, high value, high cost. Worth it when your real goal is “have a great evening,” not “get a beer.”

Pick the wrong one and someone’s disappointed. Or bankrupt.

Automation can’t handle nuance. AI Workflow can’t question the goal. And AI Agent can’t help but try to solve your whole life when you just wanted a Stella.

Want to dig deeper?

For technical deep-dives:

For decision frameworks:

Most importantly:

For your wallet’s sake, don’t take an AI Agent to the bar when you just want a beer.