AI Agents & Workflow Automation

Compare a one-off request, defined sequence, triggered automation and agent that chooses steps. Identify when a simple workflow is sufficient.

Select a recurring process with clear inputs, outputs and limits. Evaluate volume, variability, risk and whether the result can be checked.

Document triggers, dependencies, owners and exceptions. Improve unnecessary steps before adding AI or connecting systems.

Specify required fields, acceptable values and missing-data behaviour. Practise turning free text into structured outputs that can be validated.

Separate extraction, analysis, drafting and review. Define what each stage passes forward and prevent unchecked errors from becoming accepted facts.

Understand how retrieving approved material can support answers. Explore source references, freshness and retrieval gaps; retrieved context does not guarantee correctness.

Define a bounded knowledge scope, authorised documents and access rules. Design an answer that cites evidence or routes an unresolved question to a person.

Understand what connecting email, CRM or documents lets a system do. Limit access to the task and distinguish reading from writing or sending.

Specify objectives, allowed actions, limits and stop conditions. Avoid broad goals that invite unexpected steps or unauthorised changes.

Place review before consequential actions such as sending messages or updating records. Decide what evidence the reviewer needs to approve safely.

Create ordinary, ambiguous, missing-input and adversarial examples. Check accuracy and task completion against known expected results.

Explore how instructions embedded in retrieved documents or messages can misdirect a workflow. Treat external content as data and practise detecting unsafe action requests.

Define logs, usage limits, timeouts and escalation. Plan for tool failures, poor retrieval and unavailable services, including a manual fallback.

Run a bounded trial with agreed measures and an owner. Review errors, update sources and retest after changing prompts, tools or data.

Create and test a sandbox prototype or detailed simulation that reads approved material, drafts an output and stops for human approval. Document limits, tests and fallback behaviour.