Agent, Workflow, or Just a Button | Agentic AI and MCP for Product Managers

Lesson 2

Agent, Workflow, or Just a Button

	Button	Workflow	Agent
Steps	One	Fixed sequence	Model decides
Cost	Predictable	Predictable	Varies by 5x or more
Latency	Instant	Seconds	Tens of seconds
Testing	Trivial	Every path is enumerable	Sample-based, never exhaustive
Handles the unforeseen	No	No	Often yes
Best when	The action is known	The process is known	The path depends on findings

The Honest Ordering

Try a button. If the process needs several known steps, build a workflow. Only reach for an agent when the path genuinely depends on what's discovered along the way. Most teams work this list in reverse, starting with the agent because it's the interesting option, and discover eighteen months later that a workflow would have done it.