Introduction

Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform (AAP) 2.6 is now generally available, delivering significant new capabilities for enterprise automation. This release focuses on three key areas: measuring automation value, AI-powered assistance, and scaling automation across the enterprise.

Key Features in AAP 2.6

Automation Dashboard

The new automation dashboard provides real-time insights into your automation initiatives. Monitor job success rates, time savings, and ROI with customizable reports that can be shared with stakeholders.

Key capabilities include:

  • ROI tracking — Demonstrate the value of automation with concrete metrics
  • Data-driven decisions — Real-time actionable insights into automation usage
  • Resource optimization — Full visibility into direct and indirect nodes
  • Secure reporting — On-premise utility with PDF/CSV export

Ansible Lightspeed Intelligent Assistant

AAP 2.6 integrates generative AI directly into the platform UI. The Lightspeed intelligent assistant provides:

  • On-demand answers to platform questions
  • Links to validated resources for accelerated learning
  • Flexible model connectivity with Red Hat AI
  • Faster troubleshooting and onboarding

Self-Service Automation Portal

The new self-service portal empowers IT ops teams to deliver automation to broader audiences:

  • Wider adoption — Extend automation reach while maintaining control
  • Admin control — Share automation with full governance
  • Simplified delivery — Guided, point-and-click interface for non-Ansible users

Additional Enhancements

  • Event-Driven Ansible — External secret management, editable project URLs, enhanced Kafka support
  • Refreshed UI — Cleaner, more responsive design with improved accessibility
  • AI-assisted inventory generation (developer preview)
  • New integrations — Arista, Cisco Meraki, Nautobot, HashiCorp, and more

Upgrade Path

Both AAP 2.4 and 2.5 customers have direct upgrade paths to 2.6. Important: RPM-based installations are deprecated after this release. Starting with AAP 2.7, only containerized installations will be supported.

Conclusion

AAP 2.6 represents a significant step forward in enterprise automation, combining AI capabilities, self-service delivery, and value measurement in a single platform release. Organizations should plan their upgrade path now, especially considering the RPM deprecation timeline.

For more Ansible tutorials and guides, explore the [complete article collection](/articles) on Ansible Pilot.