Most people hear “AI automation” and picture the AI itself running the workflows. That picture is incorrect. Real automation is deterministic. It is built with code, scripts, APIs, and tools that execute the same steps every time. The AI agent sits on top of that system. Its actual jobs are limited: - Summarizing data and results - Deciding which step comes next - Creating content or messages Agents should not execute the automation steps themselves. Doing so is expensive and unreliable. Keep the heavy lifting in deterministic code and tools. Let the agent handle judgment, summarization, and content only.