7 tips for getting started with AI agents and automations

If you’ve ever opened an automation platform like Make.com or Zapier and didn’t know where to begin, you’re not alone. When I first explored AI-powered automation, I started off optimistic, then got lost in the maze of API integrations. That feeling of immense possibility clouded by complexity is where many marketing teams sit today.

The tools are better than ever. Zapier just released natural language agents, making automation even accessible. Even with all the support AI automation provides marketers, it can be difficult to get started. These tips will help you along the way. 

1. Start small 

The first task I tried to automate was summarizing AI news articles. I spent hours monitoring AI news and wanted to stop reading every news article Google Alerts sent me. The four hours spent reading news articles every week represented a small and manageable test case. 

I replaced it with an AI-powered system that pulled the latest content and sent the summary to a spreadsheet — a small change that gave me time back and solved a real-world problem. My first tip is not to boil the ocean, but to choose one small thing to automate. One minute saved times 1,000 adds up! 

2. Know when to give up

That kind of success gave me the courage to try more. Some worked beautifully. Others did not. One of the early failures came when I tried to automate social media posts based on trending blog content. The automation had technical glitches: 

• My Facebook posts contained markdown language that I couldn’t get rid of. 
• My posts to X didn’t contain links due to a limitation of their API. 
• My LinkedIn automations put me in LinkedIn jail. 

It taught me that just because something can be automated doesn’t mean it should be. It also showed me how easy it is to mistake efficiency for effectiveness. I returned to manual posting, knowing that sometimes it is healthy to know when to quit!

3. Understanding the difference between agents and workflows

A workflow is like a train on a track. Each step follows the next predictably. An agent, however, is more like an explorer. It decides what actions to take and when to take them. It loops, evaluates and adjusts until it resolves. Agents aren’t just chaining prompts. They’re making decisions.

For marketers, that distinction matters. You don’t need an AI agent to organize campaign assets or create and deploy a social campaign. An AI-assisted, automated workflow will do. But if you’re tackling a task where the number of steps isn’t clear from the outset, that’s when agents can shine.

Even so, the hype around agents can be misleading. Getting an agent to book your vacation fully can be as hard as doing it yourself. The challenge is contextual. You’d have to explain every preference in such detail that it defeats the purpose. Again, just because something can be automated (even with an agent) doesn’t mean it should be.

Dig deeper: AI agents will infiltrate your martech stack

4. Scale thoughtfully

When thinking about AI automation, it’s better to look for small, repetitive tasks that add up over time. These are the unglamorous but essential building blocks of productivity. Barry Zhang from Anthropic’s Applied AI team described how automating even one-minute tasks can change a team’s entire rhythm. When something becomes effortless, it gets done more often. A task you might have skipped before becomes scalable. And that shift matters, especially when repeated hundreds or thousands of times.

Here is where things get practical. Instead of launching a full-scale content production engine, try automating how you tag and organize creative assets or routing incoming questions to the right person. These are lower-risk, high-reward moves that improve flow without triggering resistance.

5. Think like AI

None of this works without good design. In this video, Zhang shared a story about onboarding at Anthropic, where he and a colleague spent a week watching agents behave in ways they didn’t understand. To make sense of it, they closed their eyes and imagined themselves as the model, asking what they would do with limited context. That moment of empathy made the design clearer.

Marketers can use this, too. When building automations, ask what context the model lacked instead of why an AI automation failed. If the agent or workflow is stumbling, the issue might not be the code. It might be in the missing background, vague prompts or poorly described tools.

Dig deeper: 5 ways to help your B2B organization succeed with AI agents

6. Share your knowledge

Even the best-designed AI automation needs a solid rollout plan. Too often, teams build automation without communicating its intended purpose and limitations. When that happens, people get confused or bypass the system entirely. The best outcomes occur when others explain what’s changing, why it matters and how it supports the team.

A short weekly update, a quick screen recording, or a 10-minute walkthrough can save hours of frustration. 

7. Make time to refine your AI automations

As Erik Schluntz of Anthropic pointed out, too many teams build in a vacuum. They launch automations without any feedback loop. Without knowing what’s working, there’s no way to improve. And without something to improve against, automation becomes a guessing game.

If you can’t measure it, you can’t improve it. Define what success looks like before you build. Are you trying to save time? Reduce errors? Speed up campaign delivery? Pick one. Then track it.

What now?

You don’t need a five-year roadmap. You need one well-defined use case. Start small. Involve the people it affects. Build your first AI automation around a task you already understand. And don’t overbuild. 

Your job isn’t to dazzle your team; it’s to help them do better work. That means designing systems for people first. If the model and your automation improve, you’re on the right path. If things fall apart when the tech shifts, it was never built to last.

It’s not a sprint to build the flashiest agent. It’s a patient, purposeful path toward an adaptive, less chaotic marketing operation. Start where you are. Use what you have. Learn as you go and bring your team with you.