AI Isn't Replacing SREs. It's Deskilling Them.
Summary
The article argues that AI in SRE workflows may deskill operators by taking over routine incident response tasks, reducing hands-on practice and intuition for critical 5% outages. It draws on Bainbridge's Ironies of Automation to warn that over-automation can degrade human performance, and advocates for a human-in-the-loop approach and deliberate drills. It also discusses a tiered incident model and practical steps to keep SREs engaged and capable while leveraging AI as a supportive tool.