Set up automated version updates for kas
See gitlab-org/release-tools!2860 (comment 1847420929).
Ideally it'd be great to just get the latest commit on the default branch deployed on every deployment.
I agree. This would be similar to how Gitaly is updated via an automatic updater on the GitLab repository, this updater verifies the latest commit on Gitaly and if it changed it creates a GitLab merge request with the updated SHA (example)
Would it be possible to get a similar automation setup?
Definitely. This is called "Automated version updates" https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/release/docs/-/tree/master/components#components.