What is the role of continuous integration systems in the automated-build process?

Yet another hybrid operational and technical question. By now, you should be starting to recognize these. As a reminder, the best way to answer these questions is to define the term and then provide an example of how it is used in your day to day work.

"Continuous Integration, or CI, is a development practice which helps to reduce errors and bugs while developing a new software feature or application. The CI and automated build server will recognize when a new piece of code has been developed. It will then run a test that will determine if the build was successful or whether it needs attention from the development team. This is an integral part of our software development process."