Automation vs. AI Agents: An Execution Framework for Enterprises

Every enterprise is being told to 'use AI,' but few are being told how to build it. Today’s stacks already include RPA, workflow engines, scripts and orchestration layers. Now AI agents, agentic workflows and automations are being layered on top — often without changing the underlying architecture. That’s how organizations end up with brittle automations, runaway agents and governance problems disguised as innovation. Join Eugina Jordan, CEO and Founder of YOUnifiedAI, as she breaks down how enterprises can design automation and agent systems that scale without creating chaos. By the end of this session, you will: - Clearly distinguish between rules-based automation, workflow orchestration and agentic systems — and know exactly where each belongs in your architecture. - Identify where RPA still delivers value (high-volume, deterministic processes) and where it quietly becomes technical debt as complexity grows. - Understand how AI agents change system boundaries — including state management, memory and decision authority — and what that means for governance. - Apply a human-in-the-loop framework to decide when in your workflow human approval is mandatory versus when it introduces unnecessary friction. - Design control planes for automation and agents, including monitoring, rollback and auditability patterns you can implement immediately. - Recognize and mitigate real security risks — prompt injection, tool misuse, over-permissioned agents and cross-system data leakage. - Prevent agent sprawl across cloud, SaaS and internal systems by using architectural guardrails, not policy decks. Also, we’ll explore: • A step-by-step execution framework for selecting the right model (automation or agents) • A deployment playbook you can adapt to your organization • Real-world case studies showing what worked, what failed and why This session is for technical and operational leaders responsible for building, securing, and scaling automation in real enterprise environments.