Agents & automation

Automations vs agents vs assistants

Three kinds of help, and how to tell which one a vendor is selling you.

5 min readPlain English

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In one sentence

An assistant helps when you ask, an automation runs the same fixed steps whenever something happens, and an agent works out its own steps toward a goal you set.

Think of it like…

At home, the assistant is the friend you call for advice: helpful, but only when you call. The automation is the sprinkler timer: same time, same routine, rain or shine. The agent is the house-sitter you leave in charge, who deals with whatever comes up and calls you before spending money.

How it works

Ask three questions of any AI product: who starts it, who decides the steps, and what it can touch. The answers tell you which kind you’re looking at.

1AssistantYou start it and you steer it. It answers, drafts and suggests; you decide what happens next. Think of the big chat assistants, or the AI button in your email.
2AutomationA trigger starts it (“new form submitted”) and it runs the same fixed steps every time. It may include an AI step, like a summary, but a person designed the route.
3AgentYou set a goal and it works out the steps, choosing which tools to use and when, until it’s done or needs you.
4The blendMost real products mix them: an automation with an AI step, or an assistant that can take a few actions when you say so.

More freedom isn’t better. Pick the least flexible kind that does the job: it’s usually cheaper, easier to test and easier to trust.

Good at

Assistants: thinking and drafting with you
Automations: the same job, the same way, every time
Agents: multi-step jobs that vary case to case

Bad at

Assistants: work you’re not there to start
Automations: surprises the route didn’t plan for
Agents: jobs that need an identical result every time

Where you’ll see it at work

An assistant. A design studio owner asks for three ways to word a price increase, then picks one and edits it.
An automation. Every new web inquiry to a plumbing firm is summarized by AI and posted to the team chat, the same way every time.
An agent. An online shop’s agent checks stock, compares two suppliers, drafts a reorder and waits for a person to approve it.

Myth vs reality

Myth: A product called an “agent” is smarter than an automation.

Reality: The word is used loosely, and many “agents” are a chatbot plus a few automations. Ask what it decides for itself, what it can touch and who approves.