Why Network Automation Alone Isn’t Enough Anymore

Last week, I was watching a random AI video on YouTube when a thought struck me:

What if AI actually had a important role in networking industry?

This post is the outcome of that thought and bit reserach .

I’ve written a lot of Ansible playbooks recently.

Honestly, it felt magical at first. Push changes across routers with a single play — amazing.
But over time, something about it didn’t sit right.

I kept asking myself: Is this really automation? Or just scripted execution?

The Realization

The more I automated — using Ansible, Python, and even some in-house tools — the more I saw the issue.

Yes, configs got pushed faster. But if something went wrong ?
Manual digging. Logs. Debugs.
No real “Brain” in the system.

It was like teaching a robot to follow steps, but not think.

And then AI started buzzing everywhere. ChatGPT, co-pilots, LLMs...

And the question hit me hard:

What If I Could Say…

That’s it.

No YAML. No template variables. Just the intent.

And the system should know:

• Which router R1 is

• What the current config looks like

• Whether that next hop is reachable

• And apply the change safely

Right now, its not a dream. But AI is making it possible.

Where Automation Falls Short

Let’s be honest.

Automation is great. But it:

• Doesn’t understand intent

• Can’t read the network’s topology or policy dependencies

• Doesn’t explain logs

• Doesn’t help you write documentation (which we all love to skip)

• And grows harder to maintain the more scripts you have

We’re building bigger toolboxes — but not necessarily smarter ones.

How AI Can Help

I don’t think AI will replace us. But it’s already helping.

Tools like GPT can:

• Turn natural language into starting configs

• Draft validation logic for pre/post checks

• Generate parts of LLDs

• Parse log outputs and summarize them

And yes — even generate diagrams or mind maps based on device configs.

The One Thing We Always Skip

Documentation.

We all hate it. Most of us leave it to the last minute (or never).
But when something breaks — it’s the first thing we wish we had.

AI can:

• Summarize LLDs

• Highlight change impacts

• Auto-generate diagrams

• Keep things up to date when the network changes

It saves hours of writing and backtracking.

So What’s the Future Look Like?

A hybrid world.

• CLI + YAML + Prompts + AI + Human judgment.

• Systems that suggest. Engineers that decide.

• AI that writes the first draft, and we finalize it.

The goal isn’t to remove engineers.
It’s to remove the repetition — and free us to focus on what matters.

Smiles :)

Anurudh