When NOT to Use AI in a Workflow

Here's the honest part: not every workflow needs AI, even though it's trendy to add it.

Don't use AI if:

• The data is already structured. "Move rows from spreadsheet A to spreadsheet B based on a filter" doesn't need AI. It needs a simple data action.
• The task is pure logic. "If the order total is over $100, apply a discount code" is a decision, but it's not a judgment. It's a rule. Rules are faster and more reliable than AI.
• You need perfect accuracy on every single run. AI is probabilistic. It's right most of the time, very right. But it can hallucinate, misread context, or make unexpected leaps. If you need 100% accuracy, or if errors are costly, AI might not be the right step.
• The cost doesn't justify the time saved. Each AI call in a workflow costs a few cents. If you're automating something that happens once a month, the cumulative cost might exceed what you'd spend just doing it manually.

AI is best at: - Extracting meaning from messy human input - Generating variations on a theme - Classifying based on content (not just rules) - Summarizing or translating - Handling ambiguous language

AI is bad at: - Precise math - Retrieving specific data (unless you tell it exactly what to retrieve) - Tasks where the output needs to be exactly formatted - Making decisions that humans would disagree on