[jags-v]

I think the question is incomplete(at least I think so).

Its not about automating the UI tests for regression testing,but to ensure that regression testing is effective.Most of the times,this is driven through the UI, which could be flaky.

As the test pyramid paradigm states , having a lot of UI tests, depending on the functionality & complexity could be an anti pattern. Essentially , a lot of the functionality can be tested using by writing unit tests & integration tests and the end to end business use cases should be automated through the UI just to ensure it works.

If it is possible to drive the state of the application using an API or URL, to the target state and then we assert elements to check the UI.

This enables faster feedback and is less flaky.This is how we approached testing in our team.Depending on the objective , we would use Selenium ,JUNit , Cucumber or corresponding ones in a given programming language.