diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 68abd3246909418db0117a82f832b4f512bf5d60..014123f05e48e36ff4a872138154418eda180c5c 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -35,17 +35,6 @@ stages:
     paths:
       - $CI_PROJECT_DIR/work/build/tmp/work*/**/temp/log.do_*.*
 
-# Workaround for Zephyr not currectly handling TESTIMAGE_AUTO
-.build_and_test:
-  extends: .setup
-  script:
-    - KASFILES=$(./ci/jobs-to-kas "$CI_JOB_NAME")
-    - kas shell --update --force-checkout $KASFILES -c 'cat conf/*.conf'
-    - kas build $KASFILES
-    - kas build $KASFILES -c testimage
-    - ./ci/check-warnings $KAS_WORK_DIR/build/warnings.log
-
-
 #
 # Prep stage, update repositories once
 #
@@ -92,10 +81,10 @@ stm32mp157c-dk2:
   extends: .build
 
 qemu-cortex-m3/testimage:
-  extends: .build_and_test
+  extends: .build
 
-qemu-nios2/testimage:
+qemu-nios2:
   extends: .build
 
 qemu-x86/testimage:
-  extends: .build_and_test
+  extends: .build
diff --git a/ci/testimage.yml b/ci/testimage.yml
index 7ef051b503f4a3c36c8387947326824a795d819d..83e17a70d50644a987eb38937af6dd3eb6c8818d 100644
--- a/ci/testimage.yml
+++ b/ci/testimage.yml
@@ -6,3 +6,4 @@ local_conf_header:
     IMAGE_CLASSES += "testimage"
     TEST_TARGET = "QemuTargetZephyr"
     TEST_SUITES = "zephyr"
+    TESTIMAGE_AUTO = "1"