AI in Software Testing | Why it is Important In Software Test Automation?

In layman terms, AI or Artificial intelligence is the area of computer science that focuses on making machines “intelligent.” And by intelligence, it means making the system capable of learning and making decisions like humans. Thus, an AI-enabled machine will be able to learn how to react in particular situations and then make decisions in the future according to its learning.

Though AI implementation is still in its early stages in most fields, it will take a long time to work perfectly. AI technology today can help with many everyday tasks that don’t require complicated thinking.

Let’s discuss artificial intelligence in testing.

AI in Software Testing

Like most industries, the software testing industry too has evolved a lot since it started. Earlier, the development cycles used to be longer in terms of duration, so the testing time was longer too. Still, with the rapidly evolving market, the need of the hour is to reduce the development, testing and deployment time and effectively release new versions as quickly as possible. Refer Test Automation To Achieve Fail Fast, Fail Often. The organization must use test automation for everyday development, testing, and deployment tasks. They need to recognize which tasks are the same or similar and see if they can be automated. For example, when it comes to software testing, QA testers have to do many of the same things repeatedly. Automating these tasks will be helpful in the end. An example is running a set of tests each time something gets deployed.

In addition to just the mundane and repetitive tasks, there are also those tasks that are similar with minute differences which, if automated, will make the life of a software tester easier. An example of such a task is the maintenance of automated UI test cases that fail every time there is change. Say, when the name of a UI element is changed, the element’s name needs to be changed in the test automation tool, and the test case will run fine.

Tasks in the life of a QA tester(Manual and Automation)

Tasks in the life of a QA tester can be broadly summarized as below:

1. Initial Review of Documentation – Business Requirements and any development related design or implementation document.
2. Test Plan and Test Case creation – These test cases are created after reviewing related documentation, business requirements and development details.
3. Execution of Test Cases
4. Test Result Reporting
5. Testing before releases
6. Testing specific to changes
7. Performance and Load Testing
8. UI and UX testing
9. Automation of test cases
10. Maintenance of automated test cases,

Read about My Career in Software Testing: Learnings from 3 Mistakes

Manual Software Testing Vs AI Software Testing

Here’s a detailed comparison between Manual Software Testing and AI Software Testing,

Manual Testing	AI Testing
It is highly time-consuming, resource-intensive, and expensive.	AI-driven testing saves time and money, so you can ship products at a faster rate.
Executing tests manually takes more time as testers will perform tests in a linear and sequential manner.	Automation helps accelerate the test execution speed.
Test cases are executed manually by human testers. Manual testers have to actively involve themselves in testing activities.	Test cases are automated using AI test automation tools. Not much human intervention is required. Example – Testsigma, Katalon, etc.
Low productivity	High productivity
Test results can not be 100% accurate. The chances of human errors are high as testing is performed.	The test accuracy is high when compared to manual testing, as every test activity is monitored and automated via tools.
Less test coverage because it is not possible for manual testers to cover every possible test scenario.	High test coverage, as AI tools can help execute a large number of tests in a short time
Parallel testing gets very expensive in terms of machine cost, human resources, and time.	Automation tools support parallel testing, allowing testers to run tests on the cloud with fewer resources and less cost.
Manual testing is costly as you have to hire and train manual testers.	Automated testing requires an initial investment in AI tools and training, but it is highly cost-effective in the long run.

How AI Changing the Dynamics of Software Testing?

AI is revolutionizing software testing, making it faster, more accurate and efficient. AI-powered tools can analyze tons of data and automatically create test cases, freeing up time for other tasks. Plus, AI can predict potential issues before they become problems so teams can proactively address them. Ultimately, AI is transforming software testing from a labor-intensive and error-prone process to a quicker and more reliable one.

AI in Software Test Automation

AI is revolutionizing software test automation, making it easier, faster, and more accurate. AI-powered tools can create test cases, run tests, and analyze results automatically – saving time and effort. Plus, AI uses machine learning algorithms to learn from past tests to improve test case quality. AI in software testing helps teams cover more ground with fewer mistakes at a lower cost.

Why Do We Need AI in Software Test Automation?

Incorporating AI into test automation is imperative because it can revolutionize testing processes. AI-driven automation enhances test coverage, accelerates execution, and identifies intricate patterns that human testers might overlook. By intelligently analyzing data and adapting to evolving software, AI empowers testing to be more comprehensive, efficient, and adaptive, ultimately leading to higher-quality software releases.

What are the Various Methods for AI-Based Software Test Automation?

The various methods for AI-Based Software Test Automation are as follows:

1. Regression Suite Automation:
   Regression testing often demands significant time and effort from testers. AI-driven regression suite automation intelligently automates tests based on code changes. The objective is to reduce regression test cycle times by selecting and executing the appropriate set of test cases, optimizing efficiency.
2. Defect Analysis and Prediction:
   Utilizing machine learning and natural language processing techniques, this method enhances the accurate identification of software defects. The primary aim is early fault detection, helping companies expedite their time-to-market while ensuring software quality.
3. Self-healing Automation:
   AI-powered self-healing automation addresses the issue of broken test automation scripts caused by changes in objects or properties. The focus here is on automatic remediation of such issues, minimizing the need for manual intervention and accelerating the self-healing process.

What Tasks can AI Software Testing help with?

Most of the above tasks have a factor of repetition and redundancy in them. That is why the QA industry has a lot of scope of automation. Also, there are tasks that, if learnt once, can be quickly done by AI. Some such tasks are:

1. Creation of test case for one field: The AI software needs to recognize what test cases need to be run for one field type and automate them for execution.
2. Execution of test case according to changes: Once the AI software knows what areas have changed in the code, it can do risk analysis and decide what test cases should be executed to ensure nothing is broken automatically before the release.
3. Test Planning: Planning what test cases should be created for a new feature and how the test cases should be executed.
4. Automation of the same type of workflows: When the tester automates one workflow, the AI software can learn to automate all similar flows saving a lot of crucial time.
5. Maintenance of test cases when there are changes in the code: The test cases that are broken by a minute change in the code, like just renaming a component, can be easily rectified by an AI software.
6. UI testing: According to the UI components, AI-based software can easily generate test cases that test all the UI workflows.
7. Performance and Load testing: Generation of load for performance and load testing
8. Testing before releases: AI-based software can decide what all test cases should be executed before what kind of releases according to the changes in the code and new features built.
9. Create test plans automatically.

More on the scope and areas AI can be applied are discussed in the blog Scope and impact of AI in Automation Testing.

What Tasks can AI Software Testing not help with?

AI can help with repetitive tasks more or less similar to those done earlier. But even if AI is employed to its full potential, some tasks will require human efforts; below are few such tasks:

1. Review of Documentation: Examining the documentation to understand the in and out of a system that needs to be built is better done by a human.
2. Test Creation for complex scenarios: The complex scenarios that involve using multiple components in different ways is better done by a QA tester because, ultimately, the application will be used by humans.
3. Test Result Reporting and analysis: Understanding the test results and deciding the next steps needed.
4. UX testing: User experience can improve when users go through the application.

What does AI Mean for QA Testers?

Just like automation reduces the manual repetitive work for QA testers, AI also aims at minimizing the repetitive work but with added intelligence. It aims to learn solutions to problems in the future by learning the solutions to similar problems faced in the past. This means that the QA testers should keep doing what they are already doing but also have knowledge of AI-based test automation tools and use them to improve their and the QA team’s efficiency.

Thus, the overall quality quotient of a product to be launched can be significantly increased in much less time if QA Tester can use AI tools effectively.

Is AI Vital for Software Test Automation?

It is estimated that about 70% of the tasks a Manual QA tester performs can be automated via AI. When 70% of the tasks are automated without a huge initial learning curve. It translates to profit sooner and results in an increased ROI, which means that AI will prove important for Software Testing especially in Software Test Automation.

How can AI Optimize Testing?

AI can optimize software testing in several ways, including,

Fast Test Execution

• AI-powered testing accelerates the entire testing process as you can execute a large number of test cases in a short time. Using Testsigma, you can automate tests in less than 2 minutes.
• The chances of human errors are much lower in AI testing, leading to high test accuracy.
• It allows the QA team to focus on other critical testing tasks.

Self-Healing Capabilities

AI can enable self-healing test automation, where test scripts can adapt to the UI changes in the application, such as element locators or IDs. Testsigma has built-in self-healing capabilities. 

No-code testing

• Testsigma supports NLP-based testing. That is, you can automate even complex workflows as plain English statements. 
• It makes testing accessible for everyone on the team, including testers, developers, stakeholders, and clients.

CI/CD Integration

• AI can facilitate continuous testing by integrating with CI/CD pipelines, enabling automation at each development stage. 
• It accelerates the feedback cycles and ensures the software remains stable and deployable.

Detailed Test Reports

AI test automation tools generate detailed test reports, helping testers easily identify defects and share feedback with developers. 

Increased Test Coverage

AI helps test every possible test scenario, thus helping teams achieve high test coverage in less time. This is not possible in manual testing.

Benefits of Artificial Intelligence in Software Testing

Artificial Intelligence (AI) offers numerous benefits in software testing, transforming how testing works by making the testing process more efficient and effective. Here are the top benefits of using AI in software testing,

• Easy test case creation. Testers can create a large number of test cases, even for complex scenarios, in less time.
• It allows for rapid feedback on application quality and reduces time-to-market.
• You can cover multiple test scenarios and edge cases that might be challenging to identify manually.
• It eliminates human errors, ensuring consistent and reliable test results.
• AI enables continuous testing by integrating with CI/CD pipelines, ensuring testing is seamlessly integrated into the development process.
• It significantly reduces manual effort, accelerates test cycles, and increases test efficiency.

AI Tools in the Market

A few popular AI-powered test automation tools go beyond the industry-standard Selenium, like Testsigma & more.

Testsigma is a cloud-based continuous testing tool that uses NLP for test case creation and an AI-powered core for maintenance of all automated test cases. It has made the automation of test cases so easy that all stakeholders for a project, like project managers, product managers, developers, can be involved in test case automation.

Read More on: AI Testing Tools

Conclusion

AI is changing how software testing works and making it easier to automate. It uses machine learning and predictive analytics to help testers find bugs faster and more accurately, saving time and money. AI-powered tools can generate test cases, analyze results, and spot potential problems before they cause real damage. AI is a must-have for any software development team looking to stay ahead of the game in this digital world. Testsigma is the perfect platform for teams who want to use AI in software testing. It has an easy-to-use interface, even if you’re not tech savvy, and can help you automate the whole testing process. From creating test cases to analyzing results, Testsigma takes care of it so you can focus on other important stuff. Plus, it works with different testing frameworks and integrates with many other tools – so whatever your team needs, Testsigma has got you covered! If you’re looking for a way to speed up your software testing using AI, Testsigma is the place for you!

Frequently Asked Questions

Will AI take over Software Testing?

No, AI will not replace human involvement in software testing. While AI can assist in automating certain aspects of the process, humans will still be necessary for tasks such as formulating test cases, providing context, and making judgments on test results.

What are the Benefits of AI in Software Testing?

The benefits of using AI in software testing are awesome! It can make testing faster, more accurate and cheaper. Plus, AI can even spot issues before they become a problem and help you figure out what tests to run first for the best results.

How is AI used in Automation Testing?

AI is used to make testing more accessible and more efficient. It helps automate the testing process, such as creating test cases, running tests, analyzing results, and spotting errors. AI-powered testing tools use machine learning algorithms and predictive analytics to create tests automatically, find bugs or security issues, and even get better at finding problems over time by learning from past test runs.

Suggested Reading

Scope of Automation Testing

Test Automation Challenges