AI Engineering · · 1 min read
When to Reach for an AI Agent vs. a Plain Workflow
Agents are powerful and overused. A decision framework for when autonomy earns its complexity — and when a deterministic workflow is the better call.
Not every automation problem needs an agent. Agents earn their complexity when the path to a solution genuinely isn't known in advance.
A simple test
If you can write the steps down and they don't change based on the input, it's a workflow. If the right next step depends on reasoning about what just happened, it's agent territory.
Written by the Nyomik team, the engineers who build our clients' software and our own products.