Traditional automation follows rigid rules: if this happens, then do that. Agentic automation adds reasoning. It can interpret messy inputs, choose the next action, use tools, escalate edge cases, and continue work across systems.
This is the bridge between old-school workflow automation and AI agent systems. For SMBs, it means automation can finally handle the kind of work that lives in the gray zone: customer questions, lead qualification, quoting prep, research, reporting, inbox triage, and operational handoffs that are too variable for simple rules but too repetitive to keep doing manually.