AI has made observability more strategic. The biggest shift is in what engineering now needs from it.

𝐀𝐈 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐦𝐚𝐝𝐞 𝐨𝐛𝐬𝐞𝐫𝐯𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜. The biggest shift is in what engineering now needs from it.

That was my main reflection after two days at the Enterprise Engineering Series: Platform Engineering, Developer Experience, Observability, SRE, where I moderated three keynote panels on executive strategy, reliability under constraints, and AI in engineering work.

For years, we worked to make observability part of the whole engineering cycle. AI has brought fresh urgency to that conversation: the platforms supporting AI, observability of AI itself, and AI applied to observability. 𝑨𝒄𝒓𝒐𝒔𝒔 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒕𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒆, 𝒕𝒆𝒍𝒆𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒊𝒔 𝒃𝒆𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒄𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒍 𝒕𝒐 𝒉𝒐𝒘 𝒘𝒆 𝒃𝒖𝒊𝒍𝒅, 𝒐𝒑𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒄𝒊𝒔𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒔.

𝐁𝐮𝐭 𝐯𝐢𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐚𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭 𝐠𝐢𝐯𝐞 𝐮𝐬 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐜𝐭.

Federico Vrljicak captured the challenge well: 𝐡𝐨𝐰 𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐜𝐤𝐥𝐲 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐰𝐞 𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐀𝐈? His presentation brought that question down to practical engineering choices that require deliberate work.

Ugur Basak offered another useful perspective: 𝐀𝐈 𝐢𝐬 𝐚 𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐥𝐨𝐚𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐰𝐞 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐫𝐮𝐧 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐚𝐦𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐢𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐞 𝐚𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐲 𝐞𝐥𝐬𝐞𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞. New workloads tend to look exceptional at first, but they rarely are.

One wish from Marius Zaharia stayed with me: 𝐫𝐞𝐠𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐦𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐬 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐞𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐜 𝐥𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐥, 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥 𝐢𝐬 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐯𝐞. I couldn't agree more. The intention has always mattered more than the form, but assessing whether it was being fulfilled was much harder than checking formal compliance.

My conversations with vendors also left me reflecting on where the market is going. The space is becoming more crowded while the engineering environment grows more complex. As one panelist put it, 𝒊𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒈𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒊𝒔 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒏𝒆𝒘 𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒕𝒆𝒈𝒚. Technology providers need to commit to helping clients connect capabilities and achieve outcomes. That commitment demands more than a strong product.

I left thinking about the distance between seeing a problem and being able to act on it. Observability helps us close that distance when the data connects to a decision, someone owns it, and the organization gives them the means to act.

𝑇ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑘 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑝𝑎𝑛𝑒𝑙𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑡𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑠𝑝𝑒𝑎𝑘𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑠𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛𝑠, 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝐼𝑄𝑃𝐶 𝑓𝑜𝑟 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑚𝑒.

Which decision should your telemetry be helping you make today?

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