AI, mobile testing, and increased test automation: A look ahead at trends that will dominate the testing and quality engineering landscape in 2024

We asked executives across Tricentis for their thoughts on topics that have the testing industry buzzing: artificial intelligence (AI), mobile testing, and increasing reliance on low-code/no-code testing solutions. Read on for Tricentis insiders’ take on these hot topics and how they impact the future of the industry.

Navigating the path to harness generative AI

David Colwell, VP of AI & ML

We’re at the tip of the iceberg for the potential of generative AI. Alongside increased adoption, we can expect significant regulatory progress this year. Steps have already been made following the 2023 AI Safety Summit, with a landmark cross-governmental agreement to test future AI models of some of the world’s biggest tech firms prior to release.

AI presents an almost unprecedented opportunity to improve the lives of everyday people, but also a potential disruption to many parts of society, including education, workforces, and our interpersonal interactions. This will likely mean that independent organizations responsible for testing the safety of new AI models should confirm their validity and accuracy. It could also mean a greater governmental role in defining how AI should be used to benefit, not harm, the people it governs. Additionally, we can expect major updates to compliance frameworks with responsible and acceptable AI use policies becoming commonplace.

AI frameworks aligned with upcoming legislation

Bryan Cole, Director of Customer Engineering

DevOps teams will devote more resources to creating frameworks around AI that plan to address the growing use of the technology. The new AI Executive Order establishes a foundation for navigating this complex landscape, and one of the key topics it discusses is the need for independent people and plans to validate new AI-based systems. In 2024, therefore, we expect to see organizations bringing on new tools and technology that not only help to evaluate the risk associated with new AI systems, but that also provide a means to propel innovation forward.

No signs of slowdown in the mobile market

Mav Turner, Chief Technology Officer, DevOps

Global adoption of mobile apps has been steadily on the rise for several years now. Today, mobile devices generate nearly 59% of global online traffic, with retail, media, business and finance having the highest growth rate. This is a trend we expect to see continue well into the next twelve months and beyond. Enterprises today are competing with thousands of apps in app stores, and so in order to stand out they need to ensure frictionless experiences across all types of devices, applications, and browsers. To do this, organizations must prioritize a robust testing strategy across both physical and virtual devices. In doing so, they can create tests faster, reduce maintenance costs, and achieve better test coverage and application quality.

Test automation becomes the norm

Bryan Cole, Director of Customer Engineering

Test automation is no longer a ‘nice to have.’ It’s an imperative for organizations to increase productivity and improve efficiency across the software delivery pipeline in 2024. AI-powered test automation in particular not only helps augment people and empowers exploratory testers to find more bugs and issues upfront, but it’s also providing valuable metrics that help to define decision-making processes. Critical UX and performance issues can now be addressed through real-time tracking of key performance indicators such as network, location, response time, CPU, and more, meaning organizations everywhere can ship faster, more frequently ,and with greater consistency.

Doing more with less in IT

Mav Turner, Chief Technology Officer, DevOps

IT departments everywhere will continue to attempt to do more with less in 2024. Wasted team time equals lower outputs and profits, so time spent manually monitoring and troubleshooting code will cost organizations valuable resources that could otherwise be spent elsewhere. Low-code/no-code tools allow both skilled developers and non-technical workers to devote time building high-quality applications. These solutions provide the opportunity to reduce the learning curve for new testers while also increasing tester ability to focus on more strategic tasks. That’s why we expect to see greater adoption of these technologies in the next year and beyond.

Accelerating digital transformation in APAC with AI and low-code test automation

Damien Wong, SVP APAC

Across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region, we see an acceleration of digital innovation and transformation initiatives by leading enterprises through 2024. Given an uncertain economic climate exacerbated by the volatile geopolitical environment that we continue to operate in, many APAC enterprises are looking to do more with less. This means an increased interest in AI and automation to drive productivity, and this is especially so in the area of software quality engineering. APAC organizations that are able to leverage low-code model-based test automation will be better positioned to modernize their aging enterprise application landscapes, as well as supercharge their DevOps capabilities to drive quality at the speed of innovation.

Leveraging low-code/no-code, AI, and automation for lower-cost, lower-risk business transformation

Dan Melville, Senior Director for UK, Ireland & Nordics

With interest rates remaining high into 2024 and a risk of global recession according to the EIU, businesses will continue to increase scrutiny on major spend in 2024. However, with business transformation to achieve differentiation and growth persisting as a priority, technology investments will increasingly become business rather than IT decisions. With the need to deliver transformation initiatives quickly, safely, and efficiently, executives will look to leverage technologies such as low-code/no-code, AI, and automation to accelerate software development and deliver higher quality releases. Business cases centered around time-to-market and reduced business risk will also have major secondary effects for customer retention and revenue.

Quality engineering takes prevalence

Viktoria Praschl, VP Sales Central Europe

Today’s organizations operate in a highly volatile landscape with ever-changing customer expectations and demands. To ensure success, they must rapidly produce high-quality, high-performing, highly secure software that allows them to innovate faster, increase team productivity and exceed their customer’s expectations. This can be achieved if quality engineering is embraced throughout the entirety of the development lifecycle – a reality made possible through automated, end-to-end software solutions.