Top Automation Guild Survey Insights for 2026 with Joe Colantonio

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Hey, it's Joe. And before we get into anything today, I want to take a moment to say something important. It's Thanksgiving week here in the US and this time of year always makes me pause and look back. And honestly, I'm incredibly grateful for all of you. Whether you've been listening since the early days of test talks in 2014, joining during one of our Guild events, or just stumbled on the show recently, I want to thank you. You're the reason I got into this. You're the reason the community continues to grow. And you're the reason Automation Guild is heading into the 10th year, which still really blows my mind. So today's episode is intentionally short, a quick hit you can listen to while traveling, cooking, or taking a needed break. I just want to give you something valuable before you unplug for the holidays and take you behind the scenes of what I think is something huge. And that is the 10th annual Automation Guild. A full decade of helping testers level up, survive change, and stay ahead of the industry curve. And this year, the shift happening in our industry is bigger than anything I've seen since the move from Windrunner to Selenium. And believe me, I was there for that one. So every year, we run a survey to our Automation Guild community and ask them what is the number one thing that they're struggling with? And the signals coming from this community is crystal clear. Testers aren't just dealing with changes, they're drowning in it. So today, I want to walk you through the story. The data tells us the pain points testers keep fighting every year, and why Automation Guild 2026 may be the most important event we've ever hosted. Let's dive in. So first, the new reality, AI, isn't coming. It's already here. We can't put that genie back in the box. We can't put our heads in the sand. This is a real trend. So every year I ask in the survey, what do you want us to cover At Automation Guild? In the previous years, we've seen a mix. Playwright, Cypress, Selenium, best practices, cicd, Accessibility, test strategy, all still important, not going away. But this year, AI powered testing dominates every category. Not by a little, by a landslide. And people are no longer asking, will AI help us? They're asking, how do I actually use AI to generate tests that are accurate, not hallucinating. What is the real workflow for agentic AI? How do LLMs fit into test strategy, not just test generation? And how do I avoid becoming obsolete? And I know our community is wicked smart. They're technical, they know buzzwords aren't enough. They want real world guidance on what AI can do today and what is still smoke and mirrors. So if anyone asks me why are there so many AI topics at this year's Automation Guild, it's because it's a community driven event. I ask the community what they want and then I put it together based on your needs, not my needs. So that's why we have so many sessions, because it was overwhelmingly, people wanted to learn more about AI. And also speakers all submitted papers around AI as well. So this year we curated deep, practical future proof sessions covering all things around automation, from functional to performance to security testing. For example, we have Tony who's showing agentic AI for security testing, which shows actual autonomous agents in real workflows, not just dairy and slides. So second, I said last year, I think Playwright is about to take the crown. This year, based on survey results and once again, speaker submissions for papers, the tooling shakeup is real. Playwright has taken the crown. And for the first time ever, Playwright is the dominant tool testers want training on. By far not tied, not close. I mean dominant. And it's not just how do I use Playwright? But deep questions like how do I migrate from Selenium without breaking everything? How do I scale Playwright and CI? How do I combine Playwright with AI? How do I do visual testing, component testing, or API testing inside one tool? It's a new stack and people are trying to orient themselves. And once again, that's why this year we went heavy on modern tooling combined with AI, including sessions like Playwright, visual regression, AI driven Playwright, skill building, advanced debugging workflows, and real world architecture patterns. And this isn't just hype, it's what your survey responses demanded. And the third thing that bubbled up in this survey is that problems that never die in testing. Now, obviously AI is hot. New tools are exciting. You know, I get all excited about new tools, but when you zoom in out across 10 years of surveys I've been doing, the truth emerges. Some challenges never go away. They follow testers year after year, and you probably know what they are before I even say them. That's right. Test, flakiness, test maintenance, test breaking every UI change, test failing differently in CI, then locally test data management, nightmares and Environment changing underneath you every single year. 2018, same problems. 2020, same problems. Hey look, I'll be honest, I'm older. 1999, 2000, same problems still here. 2026, even worse. Why? I think with AI be better. But it's worse because releases are getting faster and team size are getting smaller. Let me give you one example. Test data management. In the survey you said things like my environment can't stay stable enough to validate an automation suite. I can't create consistent data for enterprise apps. Microservices broke my test data strategy. Sound familiar? That's why we shaped Automation Guild around real problems. Testers keep fighting and not just hot tools of the air. So another trend from the survey. Testers aren't struggling with automation skills, they're struggling with alignment. Leaders want more automation, they want it faster. They want better ROI metrics and they want fewer failures. Meanwhile, testers are saying I build automation, but leadership doesn't know how to measure the value. I can't get buy in for better tooling. We're expecting to test everything with limited staff. I've heard it all. And this is why we added sessions around things like how to win leaders and champion automation, ROI driven automation strategies and how to be the CEO of your testing career. Because automation without leadership alignment, that's how we ended up with brittle frameworks and broken processes. It's never been tooling, ever. Tooling is just a tool. It's always been processes and mindsets within your company culture that has always made automation the biggest stumbling block for success. And finally, why this year matters more. This is the 10th annual Automation Guild. This means something. This community started long before Slack communities, before AI hype cycles, even before every conference went virtual. Automation Guild was the first fully online testing of event its kind. And over these 10 years, years, we've trained thousands of testers. Helped careers grow, helped teams modernize, help testers break in, move up and stay relevant. And what's happening in 2026 is unique. AI is forcing a reset. Tool stacks are shifting, teams are shrinking and expectations are rising. Testers need clarity, not noise. Guidance, not hype. And community, not isolation. And that's exactly what Automation Guild 2026 delivers. And that's why I highly recommend you check it out and register using that link down below. Automation Guild has always been more than just a conference. It's a community. A safe place to ask hard questions. A bridge between where the industry is heading and where testers need to go. A moment to step back, learn and recalibrate. And this year is the most important year yet. If you're ready to understand AI, not just hype, but real workflows from real experts that use it in their day to day activities. And if you're ready to modernize your automation, if you're ready to finally fix flaky test and data problems, if you're ready to join the most supportive testing automation community in the world, then I personally invite you to join us using that link once again down below. So I highly recommend you join us February 9th to the 13th using that special link down below. All online. And it's not a one and done conference. We have one brand new session every month after the event is over to keep the community alive and as well Richton now hope to see you there. But as always, test everything and keep the good. Cheers.