Agentic vs Deterministic Workflows: Designing a Reliable AI Application

A case study on designing an AI-assisted workflow, discussing agentic autonomy and deterministic control through architectural decisions and production constraints.

import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import pandas as pd

cur_dir = "/mnt/Projects/Blog/notes/20260923-ai-replace-sales-reps-poll"

df = pd.read_csv(f"{cur_dir}/data/poll-results.csv", delimiter=",", encoding="utf-8")

mean_yrs = df["estimate_yrs"].mean()

data = df.groupby(["estimate_yrs"]).size().reset_index(name="Count")
data = data.sort_values(by="estimate_yrs")



with plt.xkcd():
    x = data["estimate_yrs"].values
    y = data["Count"].values

    # Create the plot
    plt.bar(x, y, color="skyblue", edgecolor="black", width=0.95)
    plt.xlabel("estimate_yrs")
    plt.ylabel("Response Count")
    plt.title("When will AI mostly replace human B2B sales reps?")
    plt.gcf().set_facecolor("white")

    plt.axvline(
        mean_yrs, color="red", ls="--", label=f"Mean ({mean_yrs:.0f} years)"
    )
    plt.legend()
    plt.show()
    # plt.savefig("../figures/xkcd_poll_effect.png", dpi=300, bbox_inches="tight")
    plt.close()

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