diff --git a/rasa_sdk/tracing/config.py b/rasa_sdk/tracing/config.py
index fc022a45f..46c64a408 100644
--- a/rasa_sdk/tracing/config.py
+++ b/rasa_sdk/tracing/config.py
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@
 from opentelemetry.sdk.trace import TracerProvider
 from opentelemetry.sdk.trace.export import BatchSpanProcessor
 from rasa_sdk.tracing.endpoints import EndpointConfig, read_endpoint_config
+from rasa_sdk.tracing.instrumentation import instrumentation
+from rasa_sdk.executor import ActionExecutor
 
 
 TRACING_SERVICE_NAME = os.environ.get("RASA_SDK_TRACING_SERVICE_NAME", "rasa_sdk")
@@ -21,6 +23,24 @@
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
+def configure_tracing(tracer_provider: Optional[TracerProvider]) -> None:
+    """Configure tracing functionality.
+
+    When a tracing backend is defined, this function will
+    instrument all methods that shall be traced.
+    If no tracing backend is defined, no tracing is configured.
+
+    :param tracer_provider: The `TracingProvider` to be used for tracing
+    """
+    if tracer_provider is None:
+        return None
+
+    instrumentation.instrument(
+        tracer_provider=tracer_provider,
+        action_executor_class=ActionExecutor,
+    )
+
+
 def get_tracer_provider(endpoints_file: Text) -> Optional[TracerProvider]:
     """Configure tracing backend.
 
diff --git a/rasa_sdk/tracing/instrumentation/attribute_extractors.py b/rasa_sdk/tracing/instrumentation/attribute_extractors.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..f83e6f6db
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rasa_sdk/tracing/instrumentation/attribute_extractors.py
@@ -0,0 +1,27 @@
+from typing import Any, Dict, Text
+from rasa_sdk.executor import ActionExecutor
+from rasa_sdk.types import ActionCall
+
+
+# This file contains all attribute extractors for tracing instrumentation.
+# These are functions that are applied to the arguments of the wrapped function to be
+# traced to extract the attributes that we want to forward to our tracing backend.
+# Note that we always mirror the argument lists of the wrapped functions, as our
+# wrapping mechanism always passes in the original arguments unchanged for further
+# processing.
+
+
+def extract_attrs_for_action_executor(
+    self: ActionExecutor,
+    action_call: ActionCall,
+) -> Dict[Text, Any]:
+    """Extract the attributes for `ActionExecutor.run`.
+
+    :param self: The `ActionExecutor` on which `run` is called.
+    :param action_call: The `ActionCall` argument.
+    :return: A dictionary containing the attributes.
+    """
+    return {
+        "next_action": action_call["next_action"],
+        "sender_id": action_call["sender_id"],
+    }
diff --git a/rasa_sdk/tracing/instrumentation/instrumentation.py b/rasa_sdk/tracing/instrumentation/instrumentation.py
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..76bb829ad
--- /dev/null
+++ b/rasa_sdk/tracing/instrumentation/instrumentation.py
@@ -0,0 +1,142 @@
+import functools
+import inspect
+import logging
+from typing import (
+    Any,
+    Awaitable,
+    Callable,
+    Dict,
+    Optional,
+    Text,
+    Type,
+    TypeVar,
+)
+
+from opentelemetry.sdk.trace import TracerProvider
+from opentelemetry.trace import Tracer
+from rasa_sdk.executor import ActionExecutor
+from rasa_sdk.tracing.instrumentation import attribute_extractors
+
+# The `TypeVar` representing the return type for a function to be wrapped.
+S = TypeVar("S")
+# The `TypeVar` representing the type of the argument passed to the function to be
+# wrapped.
+T = TypeVar("T")
+
+logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+INSTRUMENTED_BOOLEAN_ATTRIBUTE_NAME = "class_has_been_instrumented"
+
+
+def _check_extractor_argument_list(
+    fn: Callable[[T, Any, Any], S],
+    attr_extractor: Optional[Callable[[T, Any, Any], Dict[str, Any]]],
+) -> bool:
+    if attr_extractor is None:
+        return False
+
+    fn_args = inspect.signature(fn)
+    attr_args = inspect.signature(attr_extractor)
+
+    are_arglists_congruent = fn_args.parameters.keys() == attr_args.parameters.keys()
+
+    if not are_arglists_congruent:
+        logger.warning(
+            f"Argument lists for {fn.__name__} and {attr_extractor.__name__}"
+            f" do not match up. {fn.__name__} will be traced without attributes."
+        )
+
+    return are_arglists_congruent
+
+
+def traceable_async(
+    fn: Callable[[T, Any, Any], Awaitable[S]],
+    tracer: Tracer,
+    attr_extractor: Optional[Callable[[T, Any, Any], Dict[str, Any]]],
+) -> Callable[[T, Any, Any], Awaitable[S]]:
+    """Wrap an `async` function by tracing functionality.
+
+    :param fn: The function to be wrapped.
+    :param tracer: The `Tracer` that shall be used for tracing this function.
+    :param attr_extractor: A function that is applied to the function's instance and
+        the function's arguments.
+    :return: The wrapped function.
+    """
+    should_extract_args = _check_extractor_argument_list(fn, attr_extractor)
+
+    @functools.wraps(fn)
+    async def async_wrapper(self: T, *args: Any, **kwargs: Any) -> S:
+        attrs = (
+            attr_extractor(self, *args, **kwargs)
+            if attr_extractor and should_extract_args
+            else {}
+        )
+        with tracer.start_as_current_span(
+            f"{self.__class__.__name__}.{fn.__name__}", attributes=attrs
+        ):
+            return await fn(self, *args, **kwargs)
+
+    return async_wrapper
+
+
+ActionExecutorType = TypeVar("ActionExecutorType", bound=ActionExecutor)
+
+
+def instrument(
+    tracer_provider: TracerProvider,
+    action_executor_class: Optional[Type[ActionExecutorType]] = None,
+) -> None:
+    """Substitute methods to be traced by their traced counterparts.
+
+    :param tracer_provider: The `TracerProvider` to be used for configuring tracing
+        on the substituted methods.
+    :param action_executor_class: The `ActionExecutor` to be instrumented. If `None`
+        is given, no `ActionExecutor` will be instrumented.
+    """
+    if action_executor_class is not None and not class_is_instrumented(
+        action_executor_class
+    ):
+        _instrument_method(
+            tracer_provider.get_tracer(action_executor_class.__module__),
+            action_executor_class,
+            "run",
+            attribute_extractors.extract_attrs_for_action_executor,
+        )
+        mark_class_as_instrumented(action_executor_class)
+
+
+def _instrument_method(
+    tracer: Tracer,
+    instrumented_class: Type,
+    method_name: Text,
+    attr_extractor: Optional[Callable],
+) -> None:
+    method_to_trace = getattr(instrumented_class, method_name)
+    traced_method = traceable_async(method_to_trace, tracer, attr_extractor)
+    setattr(instrumented_class, method_name, traced_method)
+
+    logger.debug(f"Instrumented '{instrumented_class.__name__}.{method_name}'.")
+
+
+def _mangled_instrumented_boolean_attribute_name(instrumented_class: Type) -> Text:
+    # see https://peps.python.org/pep-0008/#method-names-and-instance-variables
+    # and https://stackoverflow.com/a/50401073
+    return f"_{instrumented_class.__name__}__{INSTRUMENTED_BOOLEAN_ATTRIBUTE_NAME}"
+
+
+def class_is_instrumented(instrumented_class: Type) -> bool:
+    """Check if a class has already been instrumented."""
+    return getattr(
+        instrumented_class,
+        _mangled_instrumented_boolean_attribute_name(instrumented_class),
+        False,
+    )
+
+
+def mark_class_as_instrumented(instrumented_class: Type) -> None:
+    """Mark a class as instrumented if it isn't already marked."""
+    if not class_is_instrumented(instrumented_class):
+        setattr(
+            instrumented_class,
+            _mangled_instrumented_boolean_attribute_name(instrumented_class),
+            True,
+        )
diff --git a/rasa_sdk/tracing/utils.py b/rasa_sdk/tracing/utils.py
index d3fbc648c..cd3f66630 100644
--- a/rasa_sdk/tracing/utils.py
+++ b/rasa_sdk/tracing/utils.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ def get_tracer_provider(
 
     if endpoints_file is not None:
         tracer_provider = config.get_tracer_provider(endpoints_file)
+        config.configure_tracing(tracer_provider)
     return tracer_provider