Although onboarding illustrates the issue clearly, the same pattern appears in credit adjudication, claims processing and dispute management. As adaptive signals enter these workflows, the architectural question shifts from adding branches to deciding where contextual judgment should reside. In my view, what is missing is not another conditional path but a different runtime model — one that interprets context and determines the next appropriate action within defined limits. This architectural layer, which I refer to as the Agent Tier, separates contextual reasoning from deterministic execution.
Introducing the agent tier: Separating execution from contextual judgment
In many enterprises, orchestration logic does not reside in a formal workflow platform. It is embedded in SPA applications, implemented in APIs, supported by rule engines and coordinated through service calls across systems. User journeys are assembled through API calls in predefined sequences, with eligibility or routing conditions evaluated at specific checkpoints.
This approach works well for repeatable, well-understood paths. When inputs are complete, risk signals are low and no exception handling is required, the clean path can be executed deterministically. State transitions are known in advance. Service calls follow predictable patterns. Human tasks are invoked at predefined points.
