The useful picture is not four levels of “autonomous orchestration.” It is one path you could explain to a substitute.
Aside. The robot does not get your badge. Your manager still reads the email with your name on it.
Napkin
- What starts it? (email, form, a time of day)
- What does the model see? (redacted text, a card from the library)
- Who says yes?
- What system sends?
If you cannot fill those, you do not have a workflow. You have a hope.
Patterns that belong at a desk
- Email arrives → classify + draft → you send
- Form row → tidy summary → you paste into the ticket tool
- Transcript → action list → you put dates on the real tasks
Patterns that do not
- Order-to-cash with no accountant
- “AI detects bottlenecks and re-routes the business”
- A target of “5 hours a week or it does not count.” Some tasks save twelve minutes and still matter. Some save an hour of lies.
Tools
n8n, Zapier, Make, Power Automate — pick the one your IT already allows. The logo is not the skill. The gate is the skill.
Try this today
Draw the napkin for one task. If IT will not give you a connector, run the model step by hand. That is still a workflow. It is just honest.
You are done when
You have a four-line napkin and you know where you stand in it.