In recent times a lot of speculation is going around whether AI is going to replace testers jobs. It’s not true. Eventually, AI won’t replace the tester’s jobs. It will change how QA testers conduct the testing. In simple words, testers will do testing with the help of smart assistance, which is powered by AI.

Similarities of AI and Testing

There are a few similarities in software testing and AI. In traditional testing, we will prepare test cases, collect test data, test with the data sets, and then do the regression testing. Similarly, activities in AI are preparing test data, cleaning the test data, training the test data set and building AI models by running the regressions to get more accuracy. The below picture shows the similarities of testing activities and the activities in AI

AI and Testing Process

Don’t Compete with AI, Leverage It

We should not fear and accept the revolutionary changes. We have to leverage the AI to improve the testing processes. We can apply AI in the testing activities such as:

Test Estimation
Test Planning
Cleaning up and maintaining test data
Regression Testing
Defects Prediction
Identification of elements with the help of AI
Measure Test coverage
Conduct Root Cause Analysis

We have explored and implemented in our projects with Weka. I’ve discussed this in the testing guild 2018 as well as in this test talks session. I also have written a blog about our story in this article at Stickyminds.

The excerpt is taken from the MIT Sloan professors from the research article “The impact from the current wave of automation, driven by machine learning technologies, can be expected to affect jobs across the wage scale about equally. It will most likely see tasks within jobs replaced while occupations themselves are redesigned, not eradicated. Data: Erik Brynjolfsson and Daniel Rock (MIT Sloan,) Tom Mitchell (Carnegie Mellon) – 2018.”

So, we conclude that the Artificial Intelligence won’t replace testers. It will only empower the testers and in turn it improves the testing efficiency.

References

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/machine-learning-will-redesign-not-replace-work
https://www.stickyminds.com/article/leveraging-machine-learning-predict-test-coverage

About The Author Bhavani R

Bhavani is the Director of Product Management at QA Touch and a seasoned leader in product management. With certifications as a Scrum Product Owner, Digital Product Manager, and Software Test Manager, Bhavani brings a wealth of expertise to her role. She also holds a Six Sigma Green Belt and has been a featured speaker at the Guild 2018 Conference. Her passion extends beyond product management to testing, blogging, reading, and cooking, making her a well-rounded leader with a keen eye for both technical and creative pursuits.