AI and Automation Are Rewriting the Cloud Playbook

When I talk to cloud leaders, one thing is clear: the urgency to move fast is real — and so are the roadblocks. Manual workarounds and inefficient processes slow everything down. But AI and automation can clear the path, turning your insights into action and accelerating everything from early assessments to day-to-day operations.

To keep up, you need more than speed. You need smarter, leaner ways of working, powered by intelligent tools, expert guidance and a strategy built for real-world complexity.

Accelerate migration and reduce delays

Cloud modernization efforts often stall during assessment and migration, whether due to slow planning cycles, delayed remediations or manual roadblocks that eat up time and budget. That’s why more teams are turning to automation to move faster, reduce risk and make real progress earlier in the process. Tools like Cloudscape and MontyCloud are helping teams to:

• Auto-generate AWS-recommended actions in minutes instead of days, as demonstrated by Infocare, whose AI-powered analytics dramatically shortened the time needed to produce data-driven insights, boosting efficiency for both clinicians and analysts.
• Cut assessment timelines by up to 40%, as seen in our own processes at Rackspace, where timelines dropped from 10–12 days to just 7–9 using Cloudscape’s prebuilt templates.
• Lower the cost of readiness without sacrificing quality. Our client Be A Part Of is projected to save nearly 25% of operational expenses through the implementation of a new AI-driven chatbot.

By shifting repetitive tasks to automation, teams can reinvest time and budget into more strategic efforts without raising delivery timelines or cost.

Make FinOps smarter, not harder

Cloud financial operations are getting more complex and data heavy. But forward-looking teams are finding ways to cut through the noise, using AI and automation to stay on top of costs and make faster decisions. Here’s how your team can start simplifying FinOps:

• Automate cost analysis with Alteryx workflows — we’ve seen this boost team productivity by 40%
• Use CloudHealth chatbots to get real-time answers to spend questions like, “What did we spend on SageMaker last quarter?”
• Monitor contracts automatically, with alerts triggered as updates occur

O resultado Faster access to insights, fewer manual reports and more time for strategic financial guidance.

As AI and automation capabilities evolve across Alteryx, CloudHealth and Ternary, we're scaling these innovations across AWS, Microsoft® Azure® and Google Cloud to deliver FinOps solutions that simplify operations and accelerate decision making.

It’s also a big opportunity to cut costs. One client, a leading software company, saved $11M over three years by using smart tools to optimize storage and shifting to flexible compute discounts.

Scale support and accelerate resolution

Your cloud support needs are growing, but they now extend beyond just maintaining uptime. You need faster answers, better visibility and support that keeps pace as your environment evolves. That’s why we’re helping customers turn to solutions like:

• SmartTickets, which automatically resolves alerts. In January 2025 alone, it processed more than 5,700 Azure alerts, saving significant manual effort and accelerating resolution.

• AI-powered translation tools that improve global support while protecting data.
• Governance tools that flag gaps in automation maturity, security and operational best practices, such as Straits Interactive, who implemented an AI-based DPO assistant to guide global data governance and compliance.

From code quality checks to budget alerts and auto-scaling scripts, lightweight automations help your environment run more efficiently without adding complexity.

Deploy quickly with reusable frameworks

Speed and consistency are no longer trade-offs. Automation-based accelerators allow teams to move quickly and get it right the first time.

Leading organizations are using plug-and-play frameworks to:

• Automate secure AMI builds with reusable components via an AMI bakery
• Deploy data lakes in weeks, not months. For example, GLP enhanced its data lakes to reduce employee workload and use real-time data access and analysis.
• Reduce disaster recovery setup time and costs.
• Launch ECS and EKS containers with built-in scaling and security.
• Streamline DevSecOps pipelines with automated scanning and reporting. O Comply Exchange reduziu o tempo de processamento de documentos de semanas para menos de um dia útil usando a automação DevOps e o FAIR™.

These reusable frameworks have cut deployment timelines by more than 50% in many cases. One clear example: the cost to implement a cloud landing zone has dropped from $100,000 three years ago to just $10,000 today.

See the results in action

The value is clear: organizations using AI and automation are seeing faster rollouts, reduced overhead and better use of team resources.

Here’s what transformation looks like in action:

• A global fintech firm went from zero automation to 70% infrastructure as code, cut operating costs by 20% and now releases updates daily.
• Convera automated case categorization, cutting response times from hours to minutes.
• Basware reduced ERP onboarding from weeks to hours using a natural language AI interface on Amazon Bedrock.

Others are applying automation to streamline version upgrades, refactor ETL pipelines and power LLM-based troubleshooting, unlocking agility and freeing up engineering time for innovation.

AI and automation expand the possibilities

What once felt like a future state is now a baseline expectation. Automation is how cloud leaders cut costs, eliminate friction and free teams to focus on high-value innovation.

As AI capabilities grow — from architectural validation to security automation — the possibilities only expand.

The path forward is clear: to move fast, scale smart and lead with confidence, automation and AI must be part of your strategy.

And while the tools may be evolving fast, one thing is constant: you need a partner who can help you make sense of it all and bring real results to life.

At Rackspace Technology, we help clients stay ahead of these shifts toward automation-first, cloud-native delivery models. From initial assessments to full-scale automation, we deliver the frameworks and engineering expertise needed to turn AI potential into operational impact.

AI and automation are rewriting the cloud playbook. Let’s write your next chapter — together.