[SRE NEXT] What's Your "NEXT"? 312 Survey Results!

Hello! I'm Kasai from the SRE Team.
KINTO Technologies Corporation participated in "SRE NEXT 2025" as a Platinum Sponsor!
Thank you to everyone who visited our booth! It was inspiring to talk with so many participants, and I gained a lot of valuable insights.
You can read about the roundtable discussion held by our members who attended SRE NEXT in the article linked below. Please take a look! https://blog.kinto-technologies.com/posts/2025-07-18-sre_next_look_back/
At our booth, we conducted a survey with the theme: "What's Your NEXT?" Thank you to everyone who took part.
In this article, I’d like to share the survey results with you.
 Sticky notes on the board (left: Day 1, right: Day 2) ![] (/assets/blog/authors/kasai/20250731/20250724_162209.jpeg =400x) Stack of sticky notes for the two days
 Survey ResultsOver the two days, we received 312 responses to the survey. I categorized the responses into several themes, which I would like to share here. *The classification was done using Gemini.
SRE & Organizational Culture (60 responses) These responses were related to the practice and promotion of SRE, fostering organizational culture, recruitment, and team building.
Becoming able to promote SRE
Spreading the SRE culture
Hiring engineers successfully
Creating an engineering organization that excites people!
Building a common platform for Embedded SRE
Many responses touched on topics such as how to behave as an SRE, how to spread SRE-oriented thinking, and the difficulty of hiring more engineers. I can strongly relate to these points, as I also think about how to effectively communicate the benefits of SRE thinking to other teams and help them recognize its value.
AI Utilization (58 responses) These responses were related to improving operational efficiency and creating new value through the use of AI and LLMs.
Applying AI to infrastructure and SRE
Achieving Agentic DevOps
Enabling incident response entirely with AI
Reducing toil through AI utilization
Achieving a seven-day weekend with AI!!
Some participants were already using AI and wanted to expand its use, while others were planning to start using it. I also use generative AI, but only as an aid when writing code. For example, I have not yet reached the point where I can have AI handle all incident responses. I would like to challenge myself to find ways to use it beyond coding, such as in areas like incident response.
Technology & Service Improvement (58 responses) These responses were related to improving service quality, including the introduction of SLI/SLO, enhancing performance, and resolving technical debt.
Introducing SLI/SLO
Significantly improving performance to enhance user experience
Resolving technical debt
Fully automating operations
Working with eBPF
Many responses focused on introducing SLI/SLO and expanding observability. I still have much to learn about SLI/SLO, and my experience with implementation is limited, so I would like to continue practicing and building my knowledge and expertise.
Business & Career (41 responses) These responses were related to contributing to business, product growth, IPO, career changes, and promotions.
Understanding the business side and applying it to work
Business Growth
IPO
Become a CTO
Changing jobs
In addition to technical topics, there were also responses related to business. I feel that it is necessary to discuss reliability not only with the development side but also with the business side. There were others who shared the same view, as well as those who were thinking about how to grow the business. At present, I still feel somewhat distant from the business side, so I would like to close that gap and contribute to the business from an SRE perspective.
Speaking & Output (30 responses) These responses were related to sharing information externally, such as speaking at conferences or writing blog posts.
Preparing for a keynote talk
Outputting every month
Hosting PHP Conference 2026 Hokkaido
Submitting many CFPs
Becoming a speaker
Perhaps because it was a conference setting, there were many responses related to speaking engagements. Some people even wrote that they would speak at SRE NEXT, which made me feel that it’s wonderful we are able to host events that make people want to present. I would also like to spread the word about our company through blog posts and speaking engagements so that more people can learn about who we are.
Other (65 responses) These were private goals or unique responses that did not fit into the categories above.
Go to a sauna
See penguins in Antarctica
Be happy
Have dinner
Go on a trip
Some participants also wrote things unrelated to work or SRE. It reminded me that maintaining health and taking time to refresh are also important for doing good work.
Since we had the opportunity, we also asked Gemini to put together a summary.
Thank you so much for the 312 responses we received. Looking over the results, it is clear that today’s engineers have a healthy, well-rounded set of interests, covering technology, organization, business, and even personal goals.
The most common responses were in the "SRE & Organizational Culture" category, which shows that people see SRE not just as a technical role but as part of the culture of the team and the entire organization, and that they are strongly motivated to foster and develop this culture. This was closely followed by "AI Utilization" and "Technology & Service Improvement," indicating a balance between the desire to explore cutting-edge technology and a strong awareness of SRE’s core responsibility of improving service reliability. The fact that these three categories ranked at the top in almost equal numbers symbolizes a very balanced view of engineering.
There were also many responses related to "Business & Career" and "Speaking & Output," which was notable because it showed that many people view their role from a broader perspective, going beyond their daily work to contribute to the business and give back to the community.
Finally, the "Other" category clearly reflected values that prioritize well-being, including health, personal life, and individual dreams, alongside work.
Overall, the survey results were highly insightful, painting a picture of the modern, mature engineer—someone who pursues technical excellence, contributes to the organization, people, and business, and also seeks fulfillment in their personal life.
The above are the survey results and summary. The theme of SRE NEXT 2025 is "Talk NEXT." This is why we decided to conduct this survey with a topic related to the theme, with the hope of engaging in a dialogue with people who visited our booth. By choosing a highly abstract topic, we were able to have conversations not only with SREs, but also with engineers in other roles, and even with non-engineers. I feel it turned out to be a very good topic.
Many of the responses touched on generative AI, which has been a recent trend, and I got the impression that many people are thinking about how to apply AI in the SRE field. As for myself, while I can collect system metrics, I am still not making full use of that data to support decision-making, influence the business, or contribute to operations. I believe that being able to do so would make my role as an SRE even more interesting, and I would like to take on that challenge. I could relate to many of the other responses as well, and I enjoyed having conversations at the booth on the day. Thank you very much!
 In ClosingOnce again, thank you very much to everyone who visited our booth! We were delighted to welcome such a large number of visitors.
Many thanks also to the SRE NEXT organizers for putting on a wonderful event. I believe the stamp rally and other activities played a big part in bringing so many people to our booth. I hope to be involved in some way in next year's SRE NEXT as well.
See you again at SRE NEXT next year!
 We Are Hiring!KINTO Technologies is looking for new teammates to join us! We are happy to start with a casual interview. If you’re even a little curious, please apply using the link below! https://hrmos.co/pages/kinto-technologies