AI agents are automating something bigger than jobs: SOPs

AI agents are automating something bigger than jobs: SOPs.

We tend to think of a job as a set of simple tasks under fixed responsibilities. But modern work (especially blue-collar) means thousands of micro-tasks across many dimensions. Too many details to reduce to a single “job.”

That won't be automated any time soon.

AI agents don’t handle that. They only succeed as what we call "narrow agents": one single workflow, repeated 24/7. Each new task you add usually means a new agent.

That’s where we are today. Narrow agents in business. The rest is hype.

But AI agents are a perfect fit for something invented 100 years ago: SOPs.

If you’ve worked in an efficient organization, you know SOPs: step-by-step guides that help employees perform a task consistently. They bring new people in the org up to speed fast while keeping quality at acceptable levels.

SOPs turn out to be the perfect match for an AI agent:

👉 Scope of action is clear and documented

👉 Steps of a complex task are well defined

👉 Conditional decisions (“ifs” and decision trees) are documented

👉 Most organizations already have SOPs

👉 Written in natural language, that can be understood by both humans and AI At Morphal we solved an important puzzle when this simple concept clicked. For months we were stuck trying to automate entire (or part of) jobs. The answer was simpler: automate SOPs and most of your operations take care of themselves.

At Morphal we solved an important puzzle when this simple concept clicked. For months we were stuck trying to automate entire (or part of) jobs. The answer was simpler: automate SOPs and most of your operations take care of themselves.