Definition
An autonomous workflow is a business process that runs end-to-end with minimal or no human intervention. The workflow is triggered by an event (new email, form submission, data change), processed by AI agents that make decisions at each step, and completed with results delivered to the right place.
Example
New customer signs up on your website. Autonomous workflow: welcome email sent, CRM record created, Slack notification sent to sales, onboarding checklist triggered, and follow-up scheduled, all without a single manual step.
Why it matters
Autonomous workflows eliminate the bottlenecks caused by manual handoffs between steps. Gartner predicts that by 2028, at least 15% of day-to-day work decisions will be made autonomously by AI agents.