A process is the ordered set of actions that produces a specific outcome. Naming one turns invisible work into something you can watch, improve, and hand to an agent. A system is the broader approach to an outcome, a process is the steps inside it, and a workflow is how work moves through several processes, people, and tools.
Making coffee in a small office is the everyday version. Fill the water. Add the filter. Scoop the grounds. Press the button. Pour. Clean the pot. The outcome is coffee people can drink; the process is the ordered set of actions that gets you there.
Why you care
If you can’t describe the process, you can’t reliably improve it or delegate it, and you’ll keep depending on the person who just knows how it works. Agents raise the bar: a person skips steps from experience, while an agent needs the hidden parts made visible, like which files matter and when to ask a human. That’s why we break work down to the core activity level, where “compare source documents” is far easier to teach than “do accounting work.” Teachable work is where AI starts being useful.