Workflow automation connects tools and runs a defined sequence of steps on its own. A trigger starts it (a form is submitted, a payment arrives, a timer fires), and the following steps do the work: fetch data, transform it, call an API, send a notification, write a row.
Tools such as n8n let you build these visually, joining services through webhook triggers and API calls. Code-based automation does the same job with more control.
Reliable automation depends on the unglamorous parts: handling failures with error handling and retry logic, making steps safe to repeat (idempotency), avoiding race condition problems when runs overlap, and logging enough to see what happened. Adding AI steps gives you AI automation.
Related: Workflow, Agentic AI.