# Service Levels: SLI, SLO, SLA

DevFeed: [Service Levels: SLI, SLO, SLA](<https://devfeed.tech/articles/service-levels-sli-slo-sla-34022.md>)

Original publisher: [Read original article](<https://sridharrajarao.com/blog/service-levels/>)

Author: Sridhar Rajarao

Published: 2026-05-24T00:00:00Z

Content type: article

Language: en

Sources: [Sridhar Rajarao](<https://devfeed.tech/sources/sridhar-rajarao.md>)

Topics: [Availability](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/availability.md>), [telemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/telemetry.md>), [Artificial Intelligence](<https://devfeed.tech/topics/ai.md>)

Tags: [ai](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/ai.md>), [availability](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/availability.md>), [rca](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/rca.md>), [reliability](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/reliability.md>), [service](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/service.md>), [slo](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/slo.md>), [sre](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/sre.md>), [telemetry](<https://devfeed.tech/tags/telemetry.md>)

## AI overview

The article distinguishes SLI, SLO, and SLA as a hierarchy: measured reality, an internal target, and a customer contract. It explains how the gap between SLO and SLA creates an error budget and describes AI uses such as detecting SLO erosion, correlating telemetry, and drafting root-cause analyses while leaving operational judgment to engineers.

## Source excerpt

What SLI, SLO, and SLA actually mean, why the order matters, and where AI helps.