Mechanisms are provided for dynamically determining one or more automation levels for tasks of a workflow. The mechanisms receive a workflow from a source component and receiving context and state information for an environment in which the workflow is to be performed. One or more tasks and associated task attributes are identified in the workflow and applying one or more automation rules to the context and state information and the task attributes to generate one or more automation level settings from the one or more tasks. The one or more tasks are performed in the environment in accordance with the one or more automation level settings. The automation level settings specify a degree of automation to be used when performing the one or more tasks.