AI can write code, troubleshoot systems, build applications, analyze telemetry, and increasingly take actions on our behalf. So what happens to humans? In this episode of The Art of Network Engineering, Andy sits down with Ryan Booth to explore what becomes more valuable as AI gets better at doing the work humans do. The conversation starts with systems thinking. Everyone from technology leaders to engineers is talking about the need for systems thinkers, but what does that mean? Are network engineers better positioned for it than they realize? Ryan explains why working with increasingly capable AI systems pushed him away from thinking like an individual engineer and toward thinking more like a manager, architect, and orchestrator. Instead of specifying every task, the job increasingly becomes defining outcomes, understanding dependencies, evaluating results, and deciding how much autonomy to give the system. Andy and Ryan discuss human-in-the-loop automation, AI agents, building trust through progressively greater responsibility, the limits of today's systems, and why replacing people may be the wrong way to think about AI. They also get into the fear surrounding AI, the enormous economic incentives driving its development, parallels with previous technology revolutions, and what engineers should do right now to prepare. The takeaway isn't to outrun AI. It's to learn how to use it, understand the systems around it, and become more valuable at the level where judgment, integration, leadership, and context matter. Topics include: • Systems thinking for network engineers • AI agents and autonomous systems • Human-in-the-loop automation • How to build trust in AI systems • AI-assisted network troubleshooting • The changing role of engineers • Learning AI through personal projects • Automation, orchestration, and architecture • AI risk, hype, and uncertainty • What technical professionals should learn next Ryan Booth: https://abstractryan.ai For everything AONE: https://artofnetworkengineering.com/ 00:00 Intro and Ryan Booth 00:36 Intent-Based Networking and Apstra 03:00 Discovering AI Through Art 05:00 The Magic of AI 19:27 Systems Thinking in Networking 23:17 Are Engineers Already Systems Thinkers 28:09 It's Not The Network Mindset 32:08 Orchestration and Building Automations 32:32 Hiring and Integration Skills 41:36 Is AI Thinking or Mimicking 46:06 AI Lying and Manipulation 48:06 Trust in AI Systems 57:18 Internet Boom Parallels 1:01:29 Embracing New Technologies 1:08:09 Ryan's Portfolio abstractryan.ai 1:09:10 Ryan's Personal Art

Everyone says network engineers need to automate. Learn Python. Learn Ansible. Build a source of truth. Learn Git. Test your changes. Stop doing everything manually. There’s just one problem: When? At AutoCon 5 in Munich, Andy Lapteff sits down with Dutch network automation consultants Bart Dorlandt and Bart Smeding for a conversation that starts with Python and eventually lands somewhere much more interesting: time. Automation can turn three hours of work into three minutes. But getting there requires engineers to invest time they often don’t have, or don’t feel permitted to protect. Andy knows that firsthand. At one point in his career, his manager gave him an entire day every week to learn automation. Instead, Andy kept using that day to catch up on operational work. Why? That question opens a much bigger conversation about engineering culture, burnout, professional identity, European and American attitudes toward work, change freezes, technical debt, and the endless tension between keeping today’s network running and building a better way to operate it tomorrow. This isn’t another lecture telling network engineers to “learn Python.” It’s a conversation about why that advice is so much easier to give than to follow, and what has to change if we want network automation to become common. Bart Dorlandt: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bartdorlandt/ Bart Smeding: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bartsmeding/ For everything AONE: https://artofnetworkengineering.com/ 00:00 Intro 00:31 Two Barts, one Munich hotel 03:37 The easy button nobody gets 06:36 Wi-Fi is solved; the LAN is not 08:00 Eight months for the CLI, never eight for Python 12:07 Five maintenance windows a week 24:02 Read-only first 28:31 Everything breaks; you own the failure handling 30:16 The CLI is an API; you are the human regex 32:43 Change freezes and the feeling of safety 37:24 Source of truth, or Excel 39:35 Maybe we are too Dutch 42:10 Two priorities, pick one 43:58 The Tuesday confession 46:30 Unlimited PTO: we can, but we can't 48:00 Does Europe automate more? 50:19 The first script that worked 51:52 Where to find the Barts

What if you could carry everything AONE ever learned in your pocket? After a conversation about building things, seizing opportunities, and some of the projects we've been working on, @johncapobianco2527 took what he'd learned building his own mobile app and turned The Art of Network Engineering into its own app. This video is my first time seeing it. The AONE mobile app brings together our podcast episodes, transcripts, blog posts, videos, community, sponsors, newsletter, and a growing collection of resources for network engineers, all in your pocket and searchable. This is WAY MORE than a mobile front end for our website. For years, we've tried to make AONE useful for people building careers in networking and technology. We've accumulated hundreds of conversations, stories, lessons, technical resources, career advice, and connections along the way. An app gives us a new way to bring all of that together. And we're just getting started. Watch it, then tell us in the comments: what should we build next? What would help you learn, solve problems, or get where you're trying to go? Let us know in the comments. #NetworkEngineering #AONE #Networking #TechCareers #NetworkAutomation

Discover Drew Conry-Murray's incredible journey from zero tech background to California tech scene leader. His path through tech publishing forged a unique industry voice. #TechJourney #CareerChange #DrewConryMurray #TechIndustry