A chatbot can help write an email or explain a document. A connected workflow goes a step further: it brings that assistance into the sequence of work already happening across a business.
Our view is that the most useful opportunity is less about giving every employee another chat window and more about reducing the effort between one step and the next.
Connect the task to the next step
Imagine an incoming enquiry. AI could help interpret the message, prepare a summary and suggest a category. A defined workflow could then create a record and bring it to a person for review. The value comes from making the whole handover easier.
A workflow and an agent are different
Anthropic distinguishes between workflows that follow predefined paths and agents that direct their own processes and tool use. More freedom is not automatically more useful. The right design depends on how predictable the task is and what could go wrong.
Keep people in control of the decisions that matter
In a sensible implementation, the team knows what the system can access, what it can do and when it must ask for help. A drafted response can wait for approval. An unusual document can be routed for review. A failed step should be visible.
Prepare for change without betting on a prediction
No one can promise exactly how AI will reshape your business. You can still take useful steps now: understand your processes, organise your information and identify small opportunities to test.
Our free consultation gives you a plan for those opportunities. You can use it to start a project or keep it as a reference for the future.
Further reading: Anthropic: Building effective agents