<p>Edge–cloud computing has emerged as an important paradigm for modern Internet of Things (IoT) workflow applications, enabling low latency and on-demand resource allocation. In scenarios with heterogeneous deadlines and varying workloads, SLA compliance requires efficient coordination between edge and cloud resources. However, cloud-centric scheduling and heuristic approaches tend to lack adaptability to rapidly changing system conditions and, as a result, experience long waiting times (the same applies to QoS). To tackle these issues, we present IntelliScheduler, a hybrid actor–critic deep reinforcement learning framework for adaptive task scheduling in an edge–cloud system. Our framework presents a runtime-aware state representation combined with a learning-based decision mechanism, backed by a multi-buffer experience replay architecture. Second, a learning-based optimal task scheduling (LbOTS) algorithm is developed to minimise total task execution delay by discovering optimal deployment decisions across edge and cloud computational resources using latency-aware reward modelling. We assess the proposed approach by conducting extensive simulation experiments under different workloads. We evaluate LbOTS across various experimental scenarios and report up to 13% higher normalised reward, 67% lower training loss, 52–66% lower operational cost, and 80–90% lower rejection rate compared to PSO, MBO, and MOPSObaselines, achieving approximately 15–75% better QoE. Though the current assessment is simulation-based, the adaptive learning formulation is highly relevant for application in dynamic edge–cloud scheduling scenarios.</p>