AI Isn't Replacing SREs. It's Deskilling Them

The article argues that AI isn't replacing Site Reliability Engineers (SREs) but rather deskilling them by handling routine incident response tasks while leaving humans unprepared for rare, high-stakes crises. Drawing on a 1983 study about automation in factories, the author warns that as AI automates 95% of SRE work, the remaining engineers lose the hands-on practice needed to handle the 5% of complex problems that require deep expertise. This creates a paradox where automation designed to help actually leaves workers less capable when critical failures occur.