Artificial intelligence (AI) is the next exponential technology trend, and it's knocking on your front door. In fact, many organizations have initiatives well under way, according to the World Quality Report. One branch, "artificial general intelligence," is the effort to make machines that are conscious, like humans, where machines can reflect on their own existence. The other is "narrow AI"(also known as machine learning). Machine learning focuses on computer algorithms that can be trained with data and that mimic human thinking--without actually thinking.

The surface area for testing software has never been so broad. Applications today interact with other applications through APIs, they leverage legacy systems, and they grow in complexity from one day to the next in a nonlinear fashion. What does that mean for testers? The 2016-17 World Quality Report suggests that AI will help. "We believe that the most important solution to overcome increasing QA and Testing Challenges will be the emerging introduction of machine-based intelligence," the report states. How will we as testers leverage AI to verify these ever-growing code suites?

In the newly released World Quality Report 2019-20, IT executives said that the primary objective of QA and testing in their organizations is to grow the business and improve business outcomes, beating out last year's top priority of end-user satisfaction. However, a lack of alignment between business goals and quality ambitions is impeding the rate of agile and DevOps adoption. While automation rates are rising, many obstacles to achieving higher automation levels remain. Meanwhile, the move to security test automation has already borne results, reducing overall application security risk, respondents said. Those are just a few of the takeaways from this year's report.

Testing/QA in an agile environment is one of the most common and significant challenges. Automation is the only viable option. Yet, while nearly 60 percent of enterprises practice Agile, just 16 percent are also automating test activities. In today's digital economy speed is paramount to a successful operation. When it comes to software, Agile development is how speed-to-market is achieved, forcing enterprises to become as fleet-footed as possible to retain their market-leading positions.