AI agents vs automation: what's the difference?

AI agents and automations differ primarily in who determines the next step during execution: automations follow a predefined process, while agents choose actions in pursuit of a goal. The comparison should focus less on perceived sophistication and more on whether consistent, auditable outcomes or flexible exploration are needed. Automations are presented as appropriate for repetitive, consequential, regulated, or financial work where the same input should reliably produce the same result, while agents are better suited to open-ended research, anomaly investigation, drafting, and other tasks where steps cannot be specified beforehand and variation is acceptable. Many workflows can combine both approaches, using agents for investigation or content generation and automations for routing, logging, delivery, and other controlled downstream actions. The text argues that modern plain-language automation tools, including CodeWords, can reduce the maintenance burden traditionally associated with fixed workflows, allowing nontechnical users to update processes while retaining predictability.

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