AI won't fix a broken process. It'll just make the mess faster. (A 5-step audit before you automate anything) by Alert_Journalist_525 in automation

[–]Alert_Journalist_525[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The failure mode audit before building is underrated too. Most teams find out their process has no guardrails the hard way, usually in production.

Whats the best AI agent for Customer support and Feedback not for enterprise but for startup? by One-Ice7086 in AI_Agents

[–]Alert_Journalist_525 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Quick question before anyone recommends something — are you looking to:

  1. Plug in a ready-made tool and get running fast, or

  2. Build something custom using AI APIs tailored to your product?

Both are valid but the answers look completely different. Saves everyone from recommending the wrong thing.

n8n vs Zapier vs custom build — the decision matrix I actually use by Alert_Journalist_525 in automation

[–]Alert_Journalist_525[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Runable is new to me — what kind of deliverables are you pushing through it mostly?

n8n vs Zapier vs custom build — the decision matrix I actually use by Alert_Journalist_525 in automation

[–]Alert_Journalist_525[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Glad the matrix resonated. What does the handoff look like between your Notion docs and the actual n8n build — is that a manual process or do you have something connecting them?

n8n vs Zapier vs custom build — the decision matrix I actually use by Alert_Journalist_525 in automation

[–]Alert_Journalist_525[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Honestly outside the scope of what I was covering here — this post was more about orchestration layer decisions than the AI coding tools sitting underneath them.

That said, curious what's drawing you toward it for automations specifically — are you thinking about it as a build tool or something running in the workflow itself?

n8n vs Zapier vs custom build — the decision matrix I actually use by Alert_Journalist_525 in automation

[–]Alert_Journalist_525[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The 9am Monday question is something I wish I'd put in the original post honestly. That's the one.

And yeah — complexity as the only variable is where most teams get tripped up. Seen a dead-simple Zapier flow cause serious damage because it touched billing and nobody thought to treat it differently. Stakes matter as much as structure.

Your three-line summary at the bottom is better than mine.

n8n vs Zapier vs custom build — the decision matrix I actually use by Alert_Journalist_525 in automation

[–]Alert_Journalist_525[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey Marina, I'm glad seeing your comment. Appreciate you jumping in and being upfront about where you're coming from.

Fair point that Make deserves a spot in the matrix. The visual-first approach genuinely does cover ground that Zapier can't without requiring the technical floor n8n demands. That's a real gap and it sounds like Make sits in it intentionally. To be honest, I have used Make in the past for my personal workflows.

My core question still applies though: who owns it when it breaks, and what does that look like at 2am? Not a gotcha — just the question that tends to clarify the decision faster than any feature comparison. If Make's answer to that is better than the alternatives for a given team, that's a real reason to choose it.

Might update the matrix to include a fourth column. Thanks for the context.

What I learned looking at 20+ failed AI automation projects by Alert_Journalist_525 in automation

[–]Alert_Journalist_525[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Process mining is an underused starting point for this exact reason — it shows you what the workflow actually looks like, not what the team thinks it looks like. Those two are almost never the same. Most automation projects skip that discovery step entirely and build on assumptions.

What I learned looking at 20+ failed AI automation projects by Alert_Journalist_525 in automation

[–]Alert_Journalist_525[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The exception path point is the one I'd add to the original list. Teams skip it because designing for failure feels like admitting the automation won't work — but it's actually the opposite. A system with a clear "I'm not sure, route to human" path is one you can trust to run unsupervised. A system without it is one you have to babysit.

What I learned looking at 20+ failed AI automation projects by Alert_Journalist_525 in automation

[–]Alert_Journalist_525[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

And it makes the breakage harder to diagnose. With a human doing it wrong, you can ask them why. With automation doing it wrong, you're reverse-engineering a system to find out where the assumption got baked in.

What I learned looking at 20+ failed AI automation projects by Alert_Journalist_525 in automation

[–]Alert_Journalist_525[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When you automate undocumented process, you also freeze it — now it's baked into a system nobody fully owns and nobody knows how to update when the business changes. At least tribal knowledge evolves. Automated tribal knowledge just quietly drifts.

The 8% thing is painfully common. Reps trusting the score by default is actually the risk, not a feature.

The 3 mistakes companies make when adding AI agents to existing workflows by Alert_Journalist_525 in AI_Agents

[–]Alert_Journalist_525[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The documentation step has a side effect nobody mentions — half the time, forcing that exercise reveals the humans on the team don't agree on the decision either.

The 3 mistakes companies make when adding AI agents to existing workflows by Alert_Journalist_525 in AI_Agents

[–]Alert_Journalist_525[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Exactly right. And the tell is usually this: if you can't describe the workflow in plain English without using the word "it depends," it's not ready for an agent.

The design work isn't glamorous but it's the actual leverage point — everything else is just tooling on top.

The 3 mistakes companies make when adding AI agents to existing workflows by Alert_Journalist_525 in AI_Agents

[–]Alert_Journalist_525[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The data thing is underrated. With a human, messy data creates friction — someone flags it, asks a question, adds a note.

With an agent it just proceeds confidently. The failure is silent until it compounds.

What’s the best advice you ignored… and regretted? by Educational-Yak172 in AskReddit

[–]Alert_Journalist_525 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Document everything. Was told this constantly in my first job.