Baguette Bot"AI automation" is one of the fastest-growing searches of 2026, up almost 50% in a year in the US. People want the boring parts of their week to happen on their own: the morning email sweep, the Monday report, the invoice reminder, the price check. There are two ways to get there: build a workflow, or hire an agent.
Workflow tools vs AI agents
| Workflow tools (n8n, Make, Zapier) | AI agent | |
|---|---|---|
| How you set it up | Connect boxes: trigger, steps, conditions | Describe the job in plain language |
| Handles surprises | Breaks when something unexpected happens | Adapts: reads, decides, tries another way |
| Best for | High-volume, identical, predictable steps | Varied tasks that need judgement |
| Skills needed | Some technical comfort | Writing clear instructions |
| Cost | Cheap per run | More model usage per task |
The two aren't enemies. If you move 10,000 identical rows a day, use a workflow. If the task involves reading, judging and writing (emails, research, reports), an agent saves you the building.
The building blocks: routines and watchers
An AI agent that automates your week needs two things:
- Routines: tasks that run on a schedule. "Every weekday at 7:30", "every Monday at 9", "on the 1st of each month".
- Watchers: tasks that run when something happens. A page changes, a keyword appears, a price drops, an email arrives.
Plus one essential piece: a computer that stays on. If the agent lives on your laptop, your automations stop when you close it. That's why most people who start with a self-hosted agent end up renting a server, or using a hosted agent. See OpenClaw alternatives.
12 automations to copy
Every day
- Sort the inbox and send me a summary of what needs me.
- Give me a briefing: my calendar, the weather, and three news items on my sector.
- Check whether this appointment slot or this product is available again.
Every week
- Compile my competitors' price changes into a table.
- Summarise customer reviews from the past week and flag negative ones.
- List unanswered quotes and draft the follow-ups.
- Check my website for broken links and pages that disappeared.
Every month
- Gather invoices from my inbox into a folder and a spreadsheet.
- Remind unpaid customers (drafts for me to approve).
- Write a one-page activity report from my files.
On an event
- When a client writes, summarise their message and draft a reply.
- When this tender page mentions my keyword, read the documents and tell me if it's worth answering.
How to do it with Baguette Bot
Baguette Bot gives each account a cloud computer hosted in Paris, always on, and bots that work on it.
- Routines. Choose a preset ("every day at 8am"…) or a custom schedule with time zone. Run it manually to test, and trigger it from another tool through its webhook. You can also just ask a bot in chat to "do this every Monday", and it creates the routine itself.
- Watchers. Four modes: page changed, keyword appears, price below a threshold, email from a sender. They are checked every 5 minutes to every day, without using model credits until something happens. See website monitoring.
- Approvals. Bots prepare, and sensitive actions (sending, publishing, deleting) wait for your OK. You can approve from your phone, your Mac's notch, or by replying « ok » in Telegram, WhatsApp or email.
- Mission history. You can review and replay what was done, and undo changes on the bots' computer.
- Your model. Choose for each bot among more than 400 models. On Max and Ultra, some fast models are unlimited, which is ideal for frequent routines.
Routines and watchers are available on every plan, including the free one.
Tips for automations that last
- Write instructions like a brief for a new colleague: the goal, the format of the result, what not to do.
- Start manually. Run the task a few times by hand before scheduling it.
- Keep approvals on for anything that leaves your company.
- Give each bot one job. Specialised bots are more reliable than one bot that does everything.
- Review monthly. Delete automations nobody reads.
Sources
- Lilach Bullock, AI search demand report 2026 ("ai automation" +48% year on year): https://www.lilachbullock.com/ai-search-demand-report-2026/
- AMD, "Agent computers: the PC era amplified", 2026: https://amd.com/en/blogs/2026/agent-computers-the-pc-era-amplified.html