Lesson 02
Chatbot, workflow, or agent?
A chatbot answers. A workflow does. Buying the first when you needed the second is why a lot of AI projects disappoint.
A chatbot responds to a person
Someone asks, it answers. It is good when the value is in the answer itself: opening hours, what a policy says, which product fits. It waits to be spoken to, and when the conversation ends, nothing has changed in your business.
A workflow moves work along
It triggers on an event rather than a question. A form arrives, a payment clears, a date passes. Then it does several steps in order and leaves something behind: a record created, a draft written, a person notified, a follow-up scheduled.
How to tell which one you need
Ask what should be different afterwards. If the answer is "the person knows something", that is a chatbot. If the answer is "something got recorded, sent, or scheduled", that is a workflow. Plenty of businesses need both, but they are built differently and it is worth being clear which problem you are paying to solve.
Where agents fit
An agent is a workflow that gets to decide some of its own steps. That flexibility is useful when the path really does vary, and it is a liability when the path should be identical every time. If you can draw the process as a flowchart, you probably do not want an agent for it.
The short version
Ask what should be different when it finishes. Knowledge means a chatbot. A record, a message, or a booking means a workflow.
Written by Joel Moreno of Ask Mr. JM. The presenter image used across this site is an AI likeness; the advice is his own. All lessons
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