When Does a Smartsheet Workflow Need an Agent Instead of More Automation?
I’m relatively new to MCP and agents, and one of the biggest questions I’m thinking about right now is probably pretty basic: How do you know when you've reached the point where a traditional Smartsheet workflow should become something more?
I work in K-12 education administration, so many of the processes I build aren't particularly flashy. They're things like tracking deadlines, collecting information from multiple people, managing approvals, monitoring what is still missing, creating visibility for leadership, and making sure someone follows up when something doesn't happen.
My instinct has always been to ask: “Can I solve this with Smartsheet?”
Usually I can get pretty far with sheets, reports, dashboards, forms, formulas, and automations. But now that I'm learning more about MCP and agents, I'm realizing there may be another question I should be asking:
Just because I can build another automation, does that mean I should?
For example, imagine a workflow where Smartsheet knows a deadline has passed and a required item is still missing. A traditional automation can send a reminder. But an agent could potentially understand more context, determine what is missing, summarize the situation, help prepare the appropriate follow-up, or interact with information in another system.
That's the part I'm trying to wrap my head around.
For those of you who have already started building with MCP or agents, what tells you that you've crossed that line?
When do you keep something as native Smartsheet automation, when do you bring in an integration/API, and when does an agent become the better tool?
I'm especially interested in how people make that decision when human review still needs to remain part of the process.
I don't have an answer yet. That's exactly why I'm asking. I'd love to hear how others here think about it.
