IntermediateLesson 2 of 58 min read
The principle: a trigger, then steps.
A course from the Academy: Automating without writing code
Go to the quiz ↓All automations, regardless of the tool, share the same shape. Understanding it once is enough to understand them all.
A trigger
The event that sets everything in motion. An email arrives. A form is filled in. A row is added to a spreadsheet. It is eight o'clock in the morning. A file is dropped into a folder.
A sequence of steps
Each step receives what the previous one produced. For example: an email arrives → you extract its text → you ask the AI to classify it and produce a three-line summary → you add a row to the spreadsheet → you send a notification.
The AI is just one step among others. This is the point that sales pitches blur: it doesn't drive anything, it transforms one text into another, in the middle of a chain you have defined.
Where AI really adds value
Anywhere you need to understand free-form text: classifying a message by intent, extracting information from any phrasing, summarising, rewording. Everything a rigid rule cannot do.
Where it adds nothing
Copying a value from one place to another, sending at a fixed time, calculating. Routing that through a model adds cost, latency and a chance of error where a simple rule is reliable and free.
What to do now
Take the task selected in the previous lesson. Write it down on paper in the form: trigger, then numbered steps. Identify which ones require understanding text.
Key concepts
Complete the lesson
A 4-question quiz: 3 correct answers are enough, plus an exercise to practise. It opens in the Academy, on this same lesson.
Take the quiz and complete the lesson Free. With an account, your progress is saved and leads to the course certificate.The course: Automating without writing code
- What deserves to be automated8 min
- The principle: a trigger, then steps.8 min
- The tools, and which one to start with8 min
- What breaks, and how to spot it8 min
- Keeping control: human validation7 min