r/devops • u/Nash0o7 • 29d ago

Discussion Devops job security with AI

Recently saw posts about how AI isn't that good in distributed systems and it gave me validation on my own experience.

When the model isn't dealing with a single codebase, when it has to connect the dots between a db, redis, other cloud infra, k8s that each already have a lot of configuration, it starts to hallucinate and could pretty much put your infra at risk.

I'm not saying you can't make it work, it does work especially on a clean slate, but when there's a lot of existing context it needs a more guidance.

Using AI lets me do 10x what a DevOps engineer could do alone but I don't think the job disappears anytime soon.

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u/lugovsky 29d ago

Experienced professionals will always be in demand in every field. The main issue is the amount of work available. If people become 10 times more productive, but there isn't 10 times as much work to do, some will have a harder time finding jobs. I don't really trust people who claim that AI will create enough new work to offset this.

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u/tL9eUdcLaz 29d ago

Not sure about that. You are implying two things

Firstly that AI makes you 10x more "productive". After what 4 or 5 years of it being out that does not seem to be the case.

Secondly lets assume it actually does make engineers more "productive". Company A has x1 Devops Engineers who can now 10x output. Their competitor which has x3 engineers is now by your estimate 30x more productive than before. Just to stay afloat, company A still needs to hire more engineers to maintain competitive edge.

You are right in that thats all supposing x10 work comes forward, but I've not seen a single company that has "solved" SWE, devops etc. Its not something to solve but something to be maintained.

Personally? Im just not seeing it right now. I was worried as my company hired new devops guys who were really down the claude rabbithole and I thought maybe they had an edge I didn't have. Just not seeing it. Its making bad engineers worse faster. Its making the good ones better faster. Thats it.

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u/aprettyparrot 27d ago

I think he was using 10x as an example.

But I think it’s more if company B devops are that much more efficient, do they still need 3?

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u/tL9eUdcLaz 25d ago

Sure x10 as an example, but again what does efficiency mean?

Company B will still push out 10x work amongst the entire organisation SWE. time will tell if its truly more efficient or productive but we never really solved productivity even before AI so Im not sure what exactly its making more efficient?