Artificial intelligence (AI) is the next best thing. AI is making our lives easier with every passing day. However, there is a moral dilemma which AI brings with it. Different industries and companies all around the world are replacing human resources with AI. It is obviously in the investor’s interest but it is a fact that AI is costing jobs to many people all around the world. In 2018, 500 companies in the US took part in a survey. According to the results of that survey, 71% of these companies were using AI in some form for their business.
However, artificial intelligence is a major contributor to Industry 4.0. Therefore, it is creating a new job pool for people. Hence, it is not really making people jobless. However, when it comes to software testing, automated test management tools are a great example of AI in the IT industry. This trend shift of manual to automated tested has given rise to a very important question. Testers around the world are worried about their jobs due to automated testing. However, in this blog, you are going to get answers to all your questions.
How Artificial Intelligence Will Work in Testing?
When it comes to testing, artificial intelligence has the potential to change conventional testing altogether. In order to understand the working of AI in testing, you first need to know about machine learning (ML). It is a science of computer learning without explicitly programming the software. When it comes to testing, AI and ML work side by side to complete the tasks. ML works as same as the neural network of human brain works. The only difference is that ML uses mathematical ways to classify data in different clusters. However, it improves the methods of analyzing and classifying data over time on its own. To put it all together, one can say that artificial intelligence in testing is simply the use of machine learning to execute testing.
Machine Learning in Test Automation
Machine learning is not completely unknown in the software and testing world. As a matter of fact, the concept of ML is being practically used up to some extent in software and application testing. However, it is at a very initial stage. Hence, AI in testing is still a long way to go but even at the initial stage, the results are very promising.
It is expected that over the coming years, automated testing tools will include machine learning features. Some basic future possibilities of ML-based automated testing tools are as follow:
- Assistance in test case generation based on real-life user data
- Precise analysis to detect anomalies will be possible
- False positive results detection in real-time
- More robust recognition of dynamically changing and static parts of an application
At present, some of these features are at the very initial stage. However, In the United States of America, some big tech companies like IBM are practically using AI and ML to perform different tasks similar to testing. Therefore, it is safe to say that we are very close to shifting to AI/ML testing and the future of testing is smart and bright.
Is Your Job at Risk?
If you are still wondering what happens to the testers if testing shifts to AI, then you must stop worrying. AI/ML is assertive in nature; therefore, it is not going to take over your job. Testing will always require domain experts. If AI is going to mimic the cognitive functions which are associated with the human mind, which in this case is software testing, then it needs some set of commands in the first place. In order to write these commands, testers and domain experts are required. Therefore, if anything, AI is going to provide room for more and unique jobs because, at the end of the day, AI is Industry 4.0.
