5 Cloud Skills That Will Become Useless by 2026

In Today’s Cloudbites:

📈 5 Cloud Skills That Will Become Useless by 2026

⏳ Cloud Skills That Are Losing Relevance Fast

☁️ Online Cloud Events to Look Forward to

🤫 PLUS: GPT-5 Is Now Live and Smarter Than Ever

Read time: 5 minutes

Hi friends, welcome back to Cloudbites

In this newsletter, I’m going to help you narrow down what you need to learn, by sharing the 5 cloud skills that will no longer be needed in the next few years.

Some of them are real skills to avoid, while some others are more like mindset shifts.

I’ll also share a major AI update from OpenAI.

CLOUD COMPUTING ☁️

 📈 5 Cloud Skills That Will Become Useless by 2026

What if I told you that the most valuable cloud skill isn’t about mastering every AWS service or being able to pass certifications?

It’s about how fast you can adapt, how clearly you can communicate, and how effectively you can use AI tools to work smarter, not harder.

New cloud tools are being released all the time. Here’s the problem: the more tools and certifications there are, the more people get confused by what to learn.

Exploring different tools, and changing your career goal is fine. But you need to avoid falling into something called the “shiny object syndrome”.

It’s when having too many options actually keeps you stuck. When you constantly feel like you’re starting from zero, even though you’ve been putting in the hours.

💡 Here's what won’t matter in cloud soon

Curious about which cloud skills won’t survive in the next year?

🎥 Check out my video on 5 Cloud Skills That Will Become Useless by 2026, where I explain which skills are becoming outdated and what to learn instead.

If you’re spending time on skills that are being replaced or automated, this will help you focus on what’s actually worth learning.

⏳ Cloud Skills That Are Losing Relevance Fast

Here are the 5 cloud skills that will no longer be needed in the next few years.

#1 Clicking Through the AWS Console for Provisioning

The first cloud skill that will become useless, is relying on the AWS Console to manually provision infrastructure.

But once you start building serious infrastructure, especially for production-level environments, it becomes a real bottleneck.

Companies are expecting you to be familiar with Infrastructure as Code tools like Terraform, the AWS CDK, and CloudFormation.

With tools like Amazon Q and Claude, you can generate Infrastructure as Code templates in seconds.

While the AWS console is still there, as a visual interface, the skill of clicking around to deploy things will become useless, learn how to use tools like Terraform or CloudFormation.

#2 Being Able to Pass Cloud Certifications

The second cloud skill that will become useless, is being able to pass cloud certifications.

This skill is soon going to become useless, add that’s because of 2 reasons -

Firstly, certifications will no longer be an accurate test of someone’s ability. The exams focus a lot on memorizing concepts, and less on the practical hands-on.

Secondly, AI is removing the need to memorize facts and figures. Using ChatGPT, Amazon Q, or even built-in AI assistants, you can get accurate answers in seconds. 

Should you still get certified? Yes, but just as a starting point.1-2 associate-level certification is enough. Companies are moving toward project-based hiring.

#3 Using Cloud without tapping into AI

The third skill that’s slowly fading, is using Cloud without tapping into AI tools.

Why build things slowly, when you can build them 10 times faster with AI.

In 2025, you’ll hear a lot of people say that “AI won’t take your job, but a person using AI tools will”.

In 2026, it’s even more extreme. Cloud jobs will become AI jobs, and people will be expected to work alongside AI agents.

Cloud architects and engineers are trying to specialise in AI, to prepare for this shift. If you’re learning cloud in isolation, without trying out AI features or tools, start now.

I’d recommend starting small, by building things like an AI-powered chatbot, and then add it to your portfolio.

#4 Following Manual Runbooks Like a Robot

The fourth cloud skill that’s becoming useless is following step-by-step runbooks without actually understanding what’s happening underneath.

A lot of Cloud Support Engineers and junior DevOps roles still rely heavily on internal documentation to get through tasks.

AI already has the capability to handle this kind of work.

If your job is about executing known steps from a guide, it’s going to become irrelevant.

You’ll need to be the one improving the automation workflows, designing systems that self-recover, or identifying the deeper pattern behind an outage.

#5 Tying Yourself Too Closely to One Cloud Provider

Instead of learning just AWS or Azure services, start thinking in a more cloud-agnostic way. Being cloud-agnostic doesn’t mean you need to learn every platform.

It means you understand the core building blocks of the cloud and how to apply them. It also doesn’t mean you need to learn multiple clouds.

Instead combine it with 1 adjustment skill. For example, AWS + Python, AWS + Terraform, and Azure + DevOps. 

That way, you’re not spread too thin across multiple platforms, but you’re still building transferable skills that can be applied in technologies.

These skills aren’t disappearing overnight, but the faster you adapt, the more future-proof your cloud career will be.

☁️ Online Cloud Events to Look Forward to

#1 AWS Community Day Oceanic (August 15)

A community-driven event with developer talks, hands-on workshops, and discussions on AI, cloud, and modern AWS practices. Great for global participation.

Click here to register. 

#2 AWS Gen AI + Data Virtual Series (August 14)

Hands-on technical sessions focused on building real-world GenAI and data workloads. Includes practical demos, customer use cases, and live Q&A.

Click here to register. 

#3 AWS re:Invent 2025 (December 1-5)

The biggest AWS event of the year! Start planning early for keynotes, hands-on learning & networking in Las Vegas or virtually.

Click here to register. 

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE (AI) 🤖

🤫 PLUS: GPT-5 Is Now Live and Smarter Than Ever 

OpenAI has rolled out GPT-5, its most advanced AI model yet, bringing major upgrades in reasoning, accuracy, and multi-modal capabilities.

💡 Here’s what you should know:

• Smarter reasoning: Handles complex problems, multi-step tasks, and nuanced instructions more effectively.

• Faster & more accurate: Delivers responses quicker, with better factual reliability.

• Improved multi-modal skills: Works seamlessly with text, images, and other input types in the same conversation.

• Better memory & context: Can remember more details within a session for smoother, more natural interactions.

GPT-5 is now available to Plus and Pro users. This release is expected to boost productivity, creative workflows, and real-world AI adoption across industries.

THAT’S A WRAP

Thanks for reading! 😊

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