Beyond Chat: The Rise of Agentic Workflows

We have spent the last 3 years typing into text boxes. "Write this." "Summarize that." "Analyze this file."

It was magical, then it was useful, and now... it's friction.

The Friction of Chat

Chat interfaces require a human to be the router, memory, and quality control.

1. Human has an intent.
2. Human types a prompt.
3. AI responds.
4. Human evaluates.
5. Human copy-pastes the result to another tool.

This is not automation; it's just a smarter typewriter.

Enter Agentic Workflows

In 2025, we are finally seeing the adoption of Agentic Workflows. These are systems where LLMs acts as logic engines, not just text generators.

Example: The Invoice Processor

• Trigger: An email arrives with a PDF attachment.
• Agent Step 1: Extract vendor, date, and amount.
• Agent Step 2: Check against the PO database.
  • If match: Post to ERP as "Draft".
  • If mismatch: Draft an email to the vendor asking for clarification.
• Human Step: Approve the draft or the payment.

The human never typed a prompt. They just reviewed a decision.

Designing for Agents

To prepare for this, stop training your team on "Prompt Engineering" and start training them on Process Engineering. You cannot build an agent for a process you haven't defined.