The working distinction
Automation is a path. AI is a reader and a drafter. If you can draw the flowchart without a “here a person interprets the email” box, you want a workflow. If that box is the whole job, you want a model in front of the workflow.
Vendors blur this because “AI” sells. A rule engine with a chat skin is still a rule engine — which is fine, and cheaper.
A simple test
Write the rule. If you can, automate it. If the sentence starts with “it depends on how they phrased it”, that is AI. If the sentence starts with “then the system should also decide to refund”, that is an agent, and you should not start there.
Longer reads: business process automation and AI for business.