From vision to reality: A 5-step playbook for unified automation and AI

From vision to reality: A 5-step playbook for unified automation and AI 1. Assess your current state 2. Build your business case 3. Choose the right platform 4. Adopt a phased approach 5. Measure success Additional resources Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform | Product Trial About the author Harper Buete More like this AI ambitions meet automation reality: The case for a unified automation platform Solving tool overload, one automation step at a time Technically Speaking | Platform engineering for AI agents Technically Speaking | Driving healthcare discoveries with AI Keep exploring Browse by channel Automation Artificial intelligence Open hybrid cloud Security Edge computing Infrastructure Applications Virtualization Share Twenty-eight percent of businesses surveyed in the recent S&P Global Market Intelligence 451 Research report, “ The value of a unified automation platform ,” responded that their company uses 50-100+ tools that don’t seamlessly integrate. This widespread adoption of disparate solutions, often driven by a "do it yourself" mentality, can lead to overwhelming tool sprawl. The resulting lack of interoperability directly hinders innovation, fragments data insights, and ultimately undermines the effective delivery of AI solutions. As automation and AI become increasingly interdependent, systems must be capable of cohesive information exchange. This critical need points directly to platform engineering (PE), which enables self-service capabilities through a, "bidirectional exchange of both data and workflows," between tools. A unified automation platform isn't merely a convenience, it's the strategic foundation for AI development and deployment. Take a moment to evaluate your organization's automation maturity: Are your IT operations bogged down by manual, repetitive tasks across various domains: Network, security, cloud, and infrastructure? Do different teams (IT Ops, DevOps, SecOps, Network Ops, Line of Business) grapple with inconsistent automation tools and processes, fostering silos and inefficiency? Is your current automation fragmented, making it challenging to scale or maintain consistency across hybrid and multicloud environments? Can you accurately measure the ROI of your automation efforts, and pinpoint where automation could deliver the most significant time and cost savings? Do you have a clear strategy for integrating emerging technologies like AI into your IT operations? Is your automation foundation truly prepared to support these initiatives? The next hurdle is effectively articulating the value of a unified platform to your stakeholders and decision-makers.