Expertise Can't Be Automated: Why Resilience Still Needs Humans | Resilience in Software Foundation<br>Skip to content<br>Expertise Can't Be Automated: Why Resilience Still Needs Humans

Published on August 3, 2026

Abby Wambach, Neil Peart, Kelsey Hightower. These people are all experts in their relevant fields. Through them we recognize expertise as an exceptionally high level of performance on a particular task or within a given domain. The universal inputs to their expertise are time and exposure (aka practice). Expertise in any domain is acquired through doing, and more specifically by continued exposure to varying conditions and inputs inherent to the given domain. The latter part is important: while someone can absolutely become an expert in a very narrow sense (e.g. solving Rubik’s cubes), and someone can also learn about a subject or domain by reading, talking, listening, watching podcasts, etc., high-performance domains exert unpredictable, variable, and dynamic demands on the expert that are only mastered by continued exposure and deliberate practice within that domain.

”Experts are the people the team turns to when faced with difficult tasks.”

—Gary Klein

I have recently been on a number of podcasts/webinars/panels where the question of what expert incident response looks like comes up, especially how to train for and formalize it. Lurking behind that question for some people is often the hope that in the answer lies the opportunity to productize, scale, and even automate this essential skill for modern software-based businesses. We are currently awash in AI Ops and AI SRE solutions attempting to do just this, and I’m here to convince you that expertise cannot be bottled and sold. Beyond that, I hope to persuade you that expertise is worth investing in and cultivating within your own organization.

Common Characteristics of Expertise

It is worth noting that expertise is not simply the accrual of experience over time. As hinted at in the earlier quote from Gary Klein, expertise is a specific kind of knowledge, and it shares a number of things in common.

Expertise Is Often Invisible

Cognitive scientists and folks in the field of Resilience Engineering refer to this as the Law of Fluency. This fluency characterizes an activity that is well-adapted, such that the effort and challenges involved in conducting that work are hidden from view, making it appear smooth and effortless. Experts adapt to complex and surprising situations by filling gaps and managing challenges effectively and efficiently, and notably in ways that may not be apparent to other people. In general, fluency is considered a hallmark characteristic of expertise.

Expertise Is Not Easily Introspected

In general, experts do not have direct access to the cognitive, physical, and other sources of their expertise—human performance, given the way it is acquired through experience over time, is inherently difficult to explain. This is why many people refer to this kind of skill as implicit, or subconscious. Answering the question “How did you know to do X?” for an expert often leads to a long exploration of “Well, it reminded me of this one time…” or “It seemed similar to when…” In asking someone to explain their expertise, we are effectively asking them to try to unearth every second of practice and effort they have put into acquiring their skill.

Expertise Enables Adaptation

People newer to a skill or domain typically rely on documentation and more rigid and rule-based methods for performing a given task. They lack the context and experience to handle variations from standard expectations and outcomes, and tend not to experiment or improvise as much. Experts, on the other hand, demonstrate a unique ability to adapt to novel information, challenges, and surprise situations. Given the breadth and depth of their experience (and having learned by trying many various approaches and strategies over time), they are better equipped (and generally, more confident) to stretch and adjust when presented with novel situations. Think of this as the difference between being able to read sheet music well and being able to play jazz with a group you just met.

Consider the following list of characteristics of expertise that Gary Klein and a number of other cognitive scientists have empirically demonstrated. They found that experts:

Employ more effective strategies than others, and do so with less effort;

perceive meaning in patterns that others do not notice;

form rich mental models of situations to support sensemaking and anticipatory thinking;

have extensive and highly organized domain knowledge; and

are intrinsically motivated to work on hard problems that stretch their capabilities.

If that sounds like some of the fundamental aspects of resilience, you’re on the right track.

Expertise Is a Key Ingredient for Resilience

Given the above characteristics of expertise and how they develop, expertise can’t simply be “bottled” and subsequently...