Systems | Development | Analytics | API | Testing

AI is being treated as a shortcut for quality. Is that a dangerous gamble? There are a few industry-wide experiments happening right now: Developers are being pushed to own quality, but without dedicated testers, gaps are forming. AI is being used as a crutch for testing, but can it actually replace critical thinking? The real risk? We won’t know how badly this approach fails until it’s too late.

The Test Tribe Calgary Meetup took place on 22nd January and featured David Paquette, Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft, who took us through the power of Playwright in making end-to-end testing seamless and reliable. If you've ever struggled with flaky tests, difficult test setups, or maintaining complex test code, this talk was packed with solutions. David demonstrated how to write stable cross-browser tests, debug efficiently using Playwright’s codegen, inspector, and trace viewer, and shared practical strategies to enhance test automation workflows.

AI isn’t a shortcut to perfect testing. It won’t magically fix your processes or write flawless code. But if used right, it will push testers and developers to think more critically. Instead of asking if AI should be part of testing, the real question is how to make it a true collaborator. That means: Using AI to highlight gaps, not blindly trusting its output Treating it as a thought partner, not an automation machine.

That’s where feature flags come in. They let you: Ship small, continuous changes without fear. Give different teams control over what and when features are released. Roll out to preview users before full deployment. It’s all about having control over production - without sacrificing speed. Watch the full QA Therapy episode to learn more!

According to Cristiano Caetano, VP of Product Management at Katalon, human intuition is irreplaceable in this field. It is better to leverage AI for repetitive and labor-intensive tasks while using the freed up bandwidth to focus on strategy - things machines can't replicate. Stay tuned for upcoming episodes in our series!