Automation in DevOps refers to the use of technology to perform tasks without human intervention. This includes automating repetitive and manual processes such as code deployment, infrastructure provisioning, configuration management, testing, and monitoring. Automation aims to increase efficiency, reduce errors, and accelerate the development and deployment cycles. Tools like Ansible, Jenkins, Docker, and Terraform are commonly used to implement automation in DevOps practices, enabling continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines that streamline the software development lifecycle.