Theta-band oscillations are a key neurophysiological correlate of cognitive control and social cognition, coordinating processes such as working memory, conflict monitoring, and intention inference. Cognitive control models highlight medial frontal theta as a marker for performance monitoring and the recruitment of executive function during conflict and error processing. Beyond this, social cognitive frameworks link theta rhythms to intention understanding and adaptive behavior in social contexts. Previous behavioral research shows that automatic imitation is modulated bottom-up by sensory input and/or top-down by intention attribution, with human models often eliciting stronger imitation effects than robotic ones. Automatic imitation is also affected by conflict, e.g., Brass et al. (2000) demonstrating compatibility effects between observed and executed finger movements, emphasizing sensorimotor integration. We examined theta activity in the EEG during observation and automatic imitation of human and robotic hands under congruent and incongruent conditions. Besides, expected effects regarding conflict resolution, we found increased theta for robotic stimuli than human stimuli in brain areas related to visual working memory, visual error search, and in areas linked to intention inference. Participants’ slower responses to robotic versus human hands (agent effect) and to incongruent versus congruent trials (congruency effect) suggest parallel but separate cognitive mechanisms for agent and congruency effect. These results support integrative models where theta oscillations facilitate distributed network coordination during visual working memory and social cognitive control, advancing our understanding of differential neural processing of biological and artificial agents relevant for human-robot interaction.