Defining AI Agents: The Workflow Test

A Reddit post on r/openclaw argues that many products marketed as "AI agents" are essentially chatbots with better branding and a to-do list feature. The author proposes a concrete test to distinguish between a chatbot and a true agent: can it autonomously complete a multi-step workflow across different applications?

The Proposed Test

The source material specifies the test's criteria. A true AI agent should be able to execute a complete workflow without requiring the user to manually copy and paste data between applications. The value is considered limited if this manual intervention is still necessary.

Example Workflow

The post provides a specific example of the type of cross-tool workflow an agent should handle:

• Email triage
• Scheduling a meeting
• Saving notes from that meeting
• Updating a related task in a project management tool

The core technical distinction hinges on the system's ability to understand context, make decisions, and execute actions across disparate software interfaces (APIs, CLIs, UIs) to achieve a stated goal, rather than just responding to prompts within a single conversational interface.

The discussion seeks input from teams using these tools in production environments on how they define the line between a chatbot and an agent.