Author
Antoine Buteau

Antoine Buteau

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Automation series #6: State, Idempotency, Retries, and Queues

The least glamorous parts of automation are usually the parts that decide whether it works. State. Idempotency. Dedupe. Retries. Queues. Exception paths. These are not backend trivia. They are the difference between a system that can be trusted and a system that occasionally does something weird and nobody knows why.
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Automation series #5: Human-in-the-Loop Is a Design Pattern, Not a Failure

Teams often treat human review as an admission that automation did not work. That is backwards. Human review is how you make automation safe enough for consequential work. It lets the system move fast on routine cases, slow down on risky cases, and learn from the edge cases that would
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Automation series #4: The Automation Boundary: Code vs Model vs Human

Every automation has a boundary problem. What should code decide? What should a model decide? What should a human decide? If you do not answer that explicitly, the boundary gets decided accidentally. Usually by whoever wrote the first prompt, connected the first API, or approved the first demo. That is
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Automation series #3: AI Automation: When Judgment, Language, or Ambiguity Matters

AI automation earns its keep when the work is ambiguous. Ambiguous, not mystical. The customer describes a billing issue without using the word billing. A contract contains a renewal clause buried in legal language. A sales call has five objections, but only two matter. A support ticket could be a
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Automation series #2: Deterministic Workflows: When Reliability Matters More Than Intelligence

Some automation should not be intelligent. It should be boring. It should do the same thing every time, for the same reason, with logs you can understand and tests you can run. This is not less advanced. It is the foundation that lets judgment-heavy steps stay controlled. A deterministic
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Automation series #1: Automation Is Not One Thing

The fastest way to build bad automation is to treat automation as one category. It is not. A script that syncs invoices is not the same thing as an AI agent that reviews contracts. A rule that routes support tickets is not the same thing as a model that summarizes
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Power series: #10 Build Your Power Map

You cannot use power responsibly if you cannot see it. Most people navigate organizational power through instinct. They know who matters, who blocks, who influences, who must be consulted, who is trusted, who has the founder's ear, who controls budget, who can make a meeting happen, and who
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Power series: #9 AI Is Rewriting the Power Map

AI is not only a productivity tool. It is a power redistribution event. Whenever a technology changes who can access expertise, produce output, analyze information, automate work, or coordinate across boundaries, it changes the organizational power map. People who previously depended on scarce experts can do more themselves. People who

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