What you'll learn
- Introduction
- Watch the Video
- Feature Highlights
- Unlock More Value — Automation Dashboard
- Operate More Efficiently — Lightspeed Intelligent Assistant
- Achieve New Levels of Scale — Self-Service Portal
- Additional Enhancements
- Event-Driven Ansible
- Refreshed UI
- AI-Assisted Inventory Generation (Developer Preview)
Introduction
Red Hat has released an official video overview of Ansible Automation Platform 2.6, the Q4 2025 release. This article accompanies the video with a summary of all major features and enhancements.
Watch the Video
View the official "What's new: Ansible Automation Platform 2.6" video from Red Hat for a complete walkthrough of new features.
Feature Highlights
Unlock More Value — Automation Dashboard
Monitor, measure, and report on the impact of your automation:
- **Real-time metrics** — Job success rates, time savings, ROI
- **On-premise utility** — Data stays within your environment
- **Export capabilities** — PDF and CSV reports for stakeholders
- **Resource optimization** — Visibility into direct and indirect nodes
Operate More Efficiently — Lightspeed Intelligent Assistant
A new AI-powered chat assistant embedded directly in the platform:
- **On-demand support** — Get answers without leaving the UI
- **Faster troubleshooting** — AI-guided problem resolution
- **Accelerated onboarding** — New users get up to speed faster
- **Validated resources** — Links to official documentation
Achieve New Levels of Scale — Self-Service Portal
Simplify automation service delivery for the entire organization:
- **Guided forms** — Auto-generated from existing job templates
- **No Ansible knowledge required** — Point-and-click interface
- **Admin control** — Platform admins define what's available
- **Wider adoption** — Extend automation to domain experts
Additional Enhancements
Event-Driven Ansible
- External secret management (HashiCorp Vault)
- Editable project URLs
- EDA-triggered job labels
- Enhanced Kafka support with wildcards
Refreshed UI
- Cleaner, more modern design
- Improved accessibility features
- Better responsive behavior
AI-Assisted Inventory Generation (Developer Preview)
- Describe your topology in natural language
- Platform generates validated inventory files
- Reduces manual errors and onboarding time
New Collections and Integrations
- Networking: Arista, Cisco Meraki, Nautobot
- Cloud: HashiCorp, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud
- Infrastructure: Windows Server, OpenShift Virtualization, VMware
- AIOps: Red Hat AI, Splunk
Upgrade Information
- Direct upgrade path from AAP 2.4 and 2.5
- **Important:** AAP 2.6 is the last RPM-installable release
- Plan your migration to containerized installation for AAP 2.7
Conclusion
AAP 2.6 delivers on three key promises: measuring automation value, AI-powered efficiency, and enterprise-wide scalability. Watch the official video for demos of each feature in action.
For more Ansible tutorials and guides, explore the [complete article collection](/articles) on Ansible Pilot.
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