Red Hat recently unveiled Ansible Lightspeed, a generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) service that integrates IBM Watson Code Assistant. The service seeks to drive up usage of Ansible automation within organizations, making automated tasks a breeze for experienced developers and automaters.
The feature uses natural language processing to allow users to generate automation code swiftly. It leverages IBM’s foundation models to assist users who don’t have deep YAML proficiency to craft automations independently. Additionally, users can provide feedback on the model to ensure continuous improvement.
Tom Anderson, VP and GM of Ansible, described the challenge of organizations looking to modernize: a skills gap for automation. However, with this service, experienced automation talent can become much more productive by filling out the tedious pieces of code which shortens the process of writing a playbook.
Finally, the development of Ansible Lightspeed also involved deploying a large language model (LLM) built by IBM Research. IBM provided its expertise for the project while Red Hat offered their domain knowledge to train the model using publicly available Ansible automation content.
Red Hat is an open-source solutions provider which seeks to enable customers with open-source technology. Red Hat OpenShift AI is an AI platform that allows developers to accelerate the development of AI and ML applications. The company aims to offer support and platform stability to organizations while allowing for further innovation and growth.
Tom Anderson, VP and GM of Ansible, is a Red Hat leader responsible for the company’s Ansible portfolio. With over 20 years in the enterprise IT space, Anderson has been an integral part of the direction Red Hat is heading. He believes that IT automation is a key driver of operational efficiency and hopes Ansible Lightspeed will unlock the potential of AI and automation.