Ask HN: Workflow Automation vs AI Agents?

#1

Post by dicksent » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 5:28 AM UTC

A while ago, workflow automation tools (Zapier, Make, n8n) were booming. Now AI agents start eating into that space, OpenAI's Workspace Agents, Lindy, Claude's agentic features, etc.

i understand both have tradeoffs, but i'm trying to understand real-world usage:

1. why workflow automarion over AI Agents? What does it still do better?

2. if you've using AI agents, what made you switch? What do you trust them with?

3. why not use either of them?

feel free to give your opinion, im curious

Re: Ask HN: Workflow Automation vs AI Agents?

#2

Post by lukasb » Fri, Jul 17, 2026, 3:44 PM UTC

disclosure: I work at Zapier

If you have a workflow you run repeatedly, making it deterministic where possible and using AI only when necessary is much cheaper and faster.

You can accomplish this by having an "outer loop" AI agent that's responsible for building and managing automations. The "inner loop" agent runs within the automation.

Re: Ask HN: Workflow Automation vs AI Agents?

#3

Post by dicksent » Sun, Jul 19, 2026, 10:09 AM UTC

lukasb wrote: post #2

disclosure: I work at Zapier If you have a workflow you run repeatedly, making it deterministic where possible and using AI only when necessary is much cheaper and faster. You can accomplish this by having an "outer loop" AI agent that's responsible for building and managing automations. The "inner loop" agent runs within the automation.

that's interesting, can i chat you more about this?