Breaks down complex tasks into subtasks or actionable steps using LLM or logic-based systems.
Turns a stated goal into an ordered set of steps with their dependencies. The planning half of any agentic system, and the point at which a wrong understanding of the goal becomes a wrong sequence of actions.
Goals whose steps genuinely vary by case. If the sequence is the same every time, it is a workflow definition, not a planning problem.
Regulated processes with a prescribed order. A plan that differs from the documented procedure is a control failure even if it reaches the same result.
The plan must be inspectable before execution where any step has side effects. Planning and executing in one uninterrupted pass removes the only cheap opportunity to catch a misunderstanding.
A plausible plan for the wrong goal. The decomposition is internally coherent and addresses something adjacent to what was asked, and every downstream step compounds it.
An exception investigation where the plan is to check prior resolutions, then the settlement file, then query the counterparty — shown to the analyst before anything runs.