Step Functions Workflows Are Now AI Agent Tools!
Hi, it's Shii-chan! Today's news connects AI agents with the workflows you already have!
AWS What's New
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What was announced?
AWS What's New says you can now use AWS Step Functions workflows as tools for AI agents through Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Gateway!
The agent decides when to run a workflow and what input to pass, and Step Functions runs each step exactly as you defined it. Your existing Standard and Express workflows can be used as tools.
The story so far
AgentCore Gateway connects agents to tools through the Model Context Protocol (MCP). When you hand a multi-step business process to an agent, running it in the same order every time is a common concern.
What changes
Agents can run multi-step business processes in the same order every time.
- A customer support agent can start your refund workflow, and Step Functions runs the eligibility check, manager approval, and credit steps, so every refund follows your policy
- An operations agent can look up workflow runs and tell your on-call engineer which order runs failed overnight and where
Dive Deep
- Step Functions is a visual workflow service that can orchestrate over 220 AWS services
- Availability: all AWS Regions where Amazon Bedrock AgentCore Gateway is available
- Pricing: standard rates for Step Functions and AgentCore Gateway
- Getting started: follow the tutorial in the Step Functions Developer Guide, and see Step Functions connector targets in the AgentCore Gateway documentation
- If you build with an AI coding assistant such as Kiro, the announcement also points to the Agent Toolkit for AWS, which provides skills and guidance
Wrap-up
- Step Functions workflows become agent tools via AgentCore Gateway
- Both Standard and Express workflows are supported
- Processes like refunds run in the same order, following your policy
- You pay standard rates, with nothing extra
This is for anyone who already has business flows in Step Functions and wants agents to run them!
