AI workflows - Elastic: Hope-flows and hard truths

AI Workflows: Hope-Flows and Hard Truths

This is a guest post by Nic Palmer, head of customer architecture for international, Elastic.

According to Nic Palmer,

AI workflows are critical to modern enterprises.

However, they often focus too much on the model layer. Palmer notes that

if there’s failure, it usually stems from weak plumbing rather than weak models.

A failure in AI workflow may be a consequence of a ‘hope-flow’. As Palmer emphasizes,

if you can’t see, control, or adapt a workflow from end-to-end, you can’t expect it to be resilient.

This is particularly problematic when issues arise at critical times, such as

when something breaks at 3am on a holiday, you don’t want to be stuck running on hope.

Author's summary: AI workflows require robust plumbing.

Computer Weekly — 2025-10-26