Top 8 Automation Testing Trends for 2025 with Joe Colantonio

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Hey, do you want to know the biggest trends in automation testing for 2025? If so, you don't want to miss this episode. Hey, it's Joe and today I want to go over the top trends I see for 2025. I've been doing this every year since I think 2010 and this year's a little different because I use ChatGPT to analyze a bunch of survey results I have going back to 2018 up until today to help me analyze key trends and share them with you as well and what's changing and what's the same. So let's get into it, starting with my prediction number one Magentic AI, which I think is the next wave in testing. So I believe in 2025 we'll witness a continued expansion of AI assisted testing. Why? Well, the rise of AI and testing has been exponential, with the Test Guild survey data revealing 72.3 of teams actively exploring or adapting AI driven testing workflows by 2025. Here to early stage adoption just a few years ago and this trend signals one of the fastest adoption curves in the history of Test Guild Automation Testing survey and building on my 2024 multimodal AI prediction, I see the emergent trend in 2025 being agentic AI. So if you don't know what agentic AI is, these systems operate autonomously, handling tasks previously requiring human intervention. They communicate, maintain long term statuses and make independent decisions based on interactions, effectively acting as a team of highly capable testing assistants. Notice I said assistants and not replacements. So here's a quick look at how I see agency helping in testing. I'll have a link for this in more detail down below, but basically a workflow may look like this first one it will help you with prioritization. The agent will automatically analyze recent code changes in future releases and prioritize regression tests. The agent would then dynamically select the appropriate tests, choosing a subset of your complete test suite based on its risk assessment. Then it's going to help with test execution environment management with the agent will schedule and execute the selected test across various environments. If a test fails, I think the agent might be able to automatically trigger additional diagnostic tests, gather more detailed information about the failures cause or using telemetry, even try to fix trivial issues automatically. And as part of this workflow, obviously it's definitely going to help you analyze test results, classify failures based on severity and identifying patterns. The agent might even suggest bug fixes based on its analysis of common error patterns, and 5 it's going to continually learn based on its history of running and automatically refine its process. And this hypothetical scenario isn't as far fetched as it might seem. The data in our survey shows a clear trajectory towards teams, not just automating tasks, but also relying on AI to make decisions automatically, which is the core of a genic AI automation. So before we get to prediction number two, I just want to let you know that based on these automation trends, I've created an awesome lineup for this year's Automation Guild Online conference taking place February 10th to the 4th 14th that cover all the topics that make sure that you are up to speed, the latest and greatest tools and techniques to help you succeed in your career in the new year and you can register for it now down below. Even if it's after the event when you watch this video, you can still grab an all access viewing pass. Hope to see you there. All right. Dictionary number two AI Shift right Understanding your users all right Understanding real world user behavior is becoming essential for quality strategies in 2025. Back in the day we used to bake our best guess, create an application, put it in the wild and it never worked out. Our users always used it differently than we thought and they had issues in areas we didn't think they'd use. But by analyzing live user interactions now using AI, teams can now uncover patterns, anticipate issues, and ensure software meets user expectations in production environments. The integration of AI is going to enable teams to explore new ways of improving quality, and our survey data highlights a growing interest in predictive models and user behavior analysis, with teams focusing on leveraging AI to uncover long tail use cases and better understand user journeys. For example, I'll have a link for this down below as well. Goiko Adzic I had an interview with him last year and he illustrates this by envisioning tools integrating directly into platforms to provide experience, analytics and predictive models effectively anticipating problems. And this is really valuable in managing the substantial volume of user data you're including long tail use cases. AI plays a pivotal role in uncovering patterns within this data that's often overlooked. And the shift right AI approach complements traditional shift left methodologies by emphasizing quality assurance post deployment. So some of the potential benefits of this include a reduction in user reported issues through proactive monitoring, improved feature adoption by optimizing high value user flows, and enhance test coverage through data driven decisions using AI based on real world usage patterns and my crazy MoonShot vision for 2025, the next generation of AI powered tools. I've seen many demos from offer a glimpse of what is possible when testing shifts focus to real world conditions. And here's an example how some of these tools could help transform testing in 2025. So first, instead of relying on selectors that are prone to changes, AI will be able to capture screenshots of user sessions, ensuring and adaptability over time. It also can help with real user behavior analytics or analysis. Tests will be generated based on live user data, autonomously identifying business flows and covering both positive and negative cases. And by continually learning from user interactions, these tools eliminate manual test updates, a major pain point for many QA teams. It also will help with shift right production testing. Providing post deployment monitoring with traditional pre release testing ensures end to end quality by catching overlooked issues. It's going to enhance test coverage, linking code classes to real scenarios, allowing for dynamic regression testing, focusing on critical paths often missed in critical or conventional testing. And I've seen a lot of tools show me how they can now tap into telemetry to locate where the issue actually resides if a test fails and automatically fix it. And also continuous insights and monitoring. Real team global monitoring provides actual insights, bridging the gap between live performance and testing workflows. I think this approach will shift testing into a full data driven process, dynamically updating test plans based on actual usage patterns. It's going to help ensure tests remain relevant and efficient over time while significantly reducing maintenance overhead. While some of these may seem like a moonshot, the rise of AI driven tools indicate that the future of testing will definitely emphasize proactive quality assurance in real world alignment. And once again, I didn't say replace. It's just going to help testers become more of overlords of quality where you can oversee all these things and make sure what's being done is being done correctly. Number three is we're all QA now, keeping humans in the loop. So as we look towards 2025 and the adoption of agentic AI, this really is poised to dramatically change software testing. And I think this will make testing more accessible than ever, empowering non technical team members and fostering greater collaboration across all roles within your teams. And we talked about this before in 2024 and previous predictions. But the rise of low code and no code testing tools has begun to break out of its traditional silos and these tools enable business analysts, developers and even stakeholders with limited technical expertise to now play an active role in quality assurance. And based on Many of our webinar polls, it reveals that 74% of participants identify as beginners in AI, which I think emphasize the demand for tools that lower the barrier to entry. So I think intuitive low code solutions are going to help level the playing field by automating complex tasks such as test creation, defect detection, allowing a wider range of contributors to participate in your QA process. And once again, according to our survey data, 32.3% of teams are actively exploring codeless testing solutions, attracted by their ability to reduce the learning curve and accelerate tool adoption. And at the same time, the role of human oversight remains essential. As an interview I had in 2024 reveals with Tobias Muller aptly stated, that it's not about trusting artificial intelligence anymore, it's about setting boundaries and trusting what you set. And teams that combine both human expertise with AI achieve impressive results based on other industry surveys that show better defect detection and faster test cycles, which showed the importance of blending human judgment with machine efficiency. Number four is the ever evolving role of testers. So I think a lot of testers are going to start transitioning into more hybrid roles that blend traditional skills with expertise in AI, DevOps and automation. And this shift is already underway as reflected in survey and community data that I've seen with 45% of teams emphasizing the need for AI skills, 51.8% prioritizing DevOps knowledge, and 72.3 focusing on automation expertise. So to stay relevant, testers must embrace continuous learning and collaboration, becoming enablers of quality across their whole organization. And one great way to learn more how to do that is once again to join us at this year's Automation Guild that you can find down below or head on over to automationguild.com and register today. All right, prediction number five, integration with DevOps and SRE. So over the last year or so I've seen the integration of testing with DevOps and several liability engineering practices is one of the most significant automation trends that we're going to see in 2025. As organizations increasingly prioritize continuous delivery and operational resilience, testing is evolving into a proactive continuous quality effort that is integral to these other ecosystems. And our survey data shows a remarkable shift in this where we saw in 2024 with 51.8% of teams adopting DevOps practices, up from just 16.9% in our survey results from 2022. And this growth underscores an increased alignment of testing with DevOps and SRE workflows to help ensure high quality software delivery at speed. And once again this goes back to testers evolving, really increasing their scope or their area of influence into more than just functional testing. And once again, the data from surveys and polls clearly support this growing trend. So from pipeline automation to performance monitoring, teams are embracing continuous quality practices in line with the goal of operational excellence. If your organization has yet integrated testing into your DevOps or SRE workflows, 2025 is the year to make this transformation and prediction number six is end to end. Autonomous quality platforms already touched on this a little bit, but I think end to end platforms upcoming central to testing strategies and and these platforms combine testing, usability, performance, accessibility and security into a single framework addressing broader quality concerns. And by leveraging AI to automate the testing lifecycle, teams report significant improvements in defect detection and enhanced test coverage. And as I mentioned in the previous trend, our survey results show a significant increase in DevOps integration and this indicates a clear shift towards unified quality approaches, with end to end platforms becoming central to testing strategies. And once again, this isn't just speculation. Our surveys show that security testing has surged from 8.2% of people interested in 2021 to 39.5 in 2024. Performance testing now stands at 41% adoption and API testing has grown from 13.1% in 2021 to 46.2 in 2024. And I think these metrics really point to the need for a growing reliance on a comprehensive quality platform to manage the full spectrum of testing needs. And number seven, Playwright is going to be the top choice for most people when selecting an automation tool based on their needs. 2025 I think, is also going to be the year once again that Playwright continues to cement its position as the leading automation tool for the new year thanks to its unmatched versatility, reliability and performance. And survey and community feedback for 2024 reflect this remarkable growth as teams increasingly adopt it for their testing needs. And this really highlights a significant shift in preferences. After analyzing results from 2018 to 2024, here's what I found. So playwright Rapid Adoption 45.1 Adoption has positioned itself as the fastest growing automation tool, driven by its robust cross browser support, API testing capabilities and streamlined workflows. And once again based on survey results all the way from 2018 to now, selenium, once the market leader, has seen a significant decline in adoption, declining by 22.1%. And Cypress maintains its niche in front end testing. Cypress is holding steady in our study once again shows it's steady at 14.4% adoption with a dedicated user base. All right so what does this mean? I'm not saying you should use Playwright over Selenium or Selenium over Cypress. All I'm saying is all these tools have unique pros and cons. Which one is best all depends on your team's unique needs and challenges. You should try all three and see which one works best for you. And the last prediction for 2025, number eight is what language every tester should learn in 2025.

Of course it's Python. So I'll have link to this index down below that shows that Python is the top programming language for the second year in the row based on this index. This is no surprise to me as Python remains the top programming language for testers 2025 due to its simplicity, robust libraries and dominance in AI and machine learning. So its simplicity, powerful libraries, dominance in AI machine learning make it the ideal choice for testers in 2025. Whether you're a beginner aiming to break into automation or a senior tester looking for to future proof your skills, Python is the language that bridges the gap between today's challenges and tomorrow's possibilities. And even though we have a lot of tools that can create code for you automatically with AI, you still need to understand what the heck it's doing. Need to understand a language. So if you understand one language, you can apply a lot of those principles to other languages. I think Python is easiest one to get started with to help you with that as well. And not to rely on AI, but also understand what the heck AI is producing is going to be a big benefit to you as well. All right, so let's wrap this up. How do you succeed with automation testing in 2025 and thrive? First is Embrace Agentic AI. Begin to explore how autonomous AI agents can optimize workflows and reduce manual effort. Even if you're a skeptic, give it a try and see if it works for you. If it doesn't, forget about it. If it does, embrace it. Number two is to make sure to adopt shift right testing practices. You want to balance traditional shift left methodology, but post deployment monitoring to ensure software aligns with real user behavior and expectations. You want to invest in your skill development, equipping your teams with knowledge in AI automation and DevOps to stay competitive. Hybrid roles will be the foundation of future testing teams. You want to unify your testing with DevOps and SRE to break down the silos and integrate quality assurance into every phase of delivery for faster feedback and operational stability. You want to leverage comprehensive tools from platforms like Playwright to Python's versatility. Make sure to choose tools that only meet current demands, but also prepare you for future complexities. But also only choose tools that work for you and your team's unique situation. So the data insights shared here in this video are just the beginning. To stay ahead of these changes, join industry experts and your peers at our annual Online Automation Guild Conference. This is your chance to dive deeper into these trends, learn actual strategies and network with leaders shaping the future of testing. And you can find that registering using the link down below and for links of everything value we covered in this episode. Headed over to test guild.com a530 all right, so that's it for this episode of the Test Guild Automation Podcast. Once again, I'm Joe. Our mission is help you succeed in creating end to end full stack automation testing awesomeness. As always, test everything and keep the good. Cheers. Hey, thank you for tuning in. It's incredible to connect with close to 400,000 followers across all our platforms and over 40,000 email subscribers who are at the forefront of automation testing and DevOps. If you haven't yet, join our vibrant community@testguild.com where you become part of our elite circle driving innovation, software testing and automation. And if you're a tool provider or have a service looking to empower our guild with solutions that elevate skills and tackle real world challenges, we're excited to collaborate. Visit testguild.info to explore how we can create transformative experiences together. Let's push the boundaries of what we can achieve.

With lutes and lyres, the bards began their song A tune of knowledge, a melody of code through the air it spread like wildfire through the land Guiding tester showing the same secrets to behold.