The AI map · Agents and research

No-code automation with AI steps

Tools that connect your apps into workflows that run on their own, with AI steps or agents in the middle to read, sort, write or decide. The ones that lead it as of 29 October 2026.

  1. n8n New since July

    n8n

    Visual workflows and AI agents with full control, billed per workflow run rather than per step, and able to run on your own server.

    Pick it You are technical, run long multi-step workflows, or need to self-host for data control.

    Price Cloud from $20 a month billed yearly (2,500 executions); Pro $50 a month billed yearly

    Source: n8n.io

  2. Zapier

    Zapier

    The widest app catalogue, with Agents, Copilot, Canvas and MCP on every plan, for simple trigger-and-action automation.

    Pick it You are non-technical and need your apps to talk to each other with the least setup.

    Price Free (100 tasks a month); Professional from $19.99 a month billed yearly

    Source: zapier.com

  3. Make

    Make

    Visual scenarios with branching and data handling across more than 1,000 apps, plus AI agents.

    Pick it Your workflow has branches and transformations that a simple trigger-and-action tool handles badly.

    Price Free plan with 1,000 credits a month; paid plans priced by credits

    Source: make.com

  4. Lindy

    Lindy

    An AI teammate that works in Slack and email: triages inboxes and support queues, researches, and asks approval before anything goes out.

    Pick it You want an assistant that does work for a team from Slack rather than a workflow you draw yourself.

    Price $50 of free credits for 7 days; then from $49.99 per user a month

    Source: lindy.ai

  5. Gumloop

    Gumloop

    Build AI agents and workflows across your tools, with 35+ models and a browser and CLI.

    Pick it A team wants to build its own agents for ops work without writing code.

    Price Pro from $37 a month with a 14-day free trial

    Source: gumloop.com

What changed

  1. 27 Oct 2026 n8n released the 3.0 beta, a reliability and security release with breaking changes; self-hosting now runs on Docker only and the stable release is due in early December. blog.n8n.io
  2. 29 Sep 2026 OpenAI added MCP events to ChatGPT plugins, so an event in a connected app (a new task on a board) can start an automation, on all plans. openai.com

Questions people ask about it

Workflows & Automation

  1. What's the difference between automation (Zapier, n8n, Make) and AI agents?
  2. How do founders chain AI into their existing tools to remove repetitive work?
  3. What are the highest-ROI automations a startup should build first?

AI Agents

  1. What actually is an AI agent, in plain language?
  2. Why would a founder use agents instead of a chatbot or automation?
  3. What real tasks are founders delegating to agents today?
  4. How do I build my first agent without being technical?
  5. Which platform or framework should I build my agents on?
  6. How much do AI agents cost to run, and how do I keep the bill under control?

The rest of the map

Checked 29 October 2026. Prices and rankings move every few months; each tool links the page its claims were read from.

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