Ansible automation addresses the bottlenecks of manual configuration management processes by providing a systematic approach to configuration management and application deployment. It uses a simple YAML-based syntax to define tasks that can be executed across multiple remote virtual machines using SSH or WinRM, making it an agentless tool that requires no installation on remote servers, but not reliable enough for production environments alone. Ansible automation refers to the structure of workflow execution through playbooks, roles, and configurations through automation rather than manual execution. It includes orchestration of configuration management tasks, application deployments, and infrastructure provisioning through programmatic triggers, scheduling, and integration with external systems. Four approaches to implementing Ansible automation are discussed: using a remote server for Ansible deployments, a generic CI/CD pipeline, leveraging an Ansible Automation Platform or AWX, and leveraging an infrastructure orchestration platform like Spacelift, which offers powerful observability features, stack dependencies, self-service capabilities, and integration with major cloud providers.