If AI Could Really Do Real E2E Test Automation, What Would You (Software Engineer in Test) Do for Living?

In my opinion, AI Test Automation won’t bring substantial change to E2E Test Automation in the foreseeable future.

The below insightful quote about AI received significant attention. One post on LinkedIn by Zain Kahn received 15,000+ Likes and 700+ reposts in merely 5 hours!

A year ago, I wrote an article with a similar view.

Automated Testers Advocate for ChatGPT (AI) is like taxi drivers Singing for Driverless cars

Putting aside whether AI Test Automation works (real) or not (which I don’t think so), I immensely enjoy doing End-to-End (UI) Test Automation.

I switched my day work (formerly as a Lead Java Developer) to Automated Testing in 2010. Never looked back.

When I click a ‘Build Now’ button on the BuildWise CT Server, seeing the whole E2E test suite running in a browser (using raw Selenium) or mobile simulators (raw Appium) on multiple build agents.

After a short time (typically between 10–30 minutes, thanks to parallel execution), if all tests PASS, I push the build to production, with great satisfaction, and I have been cherished for over 13 years. (Yes, I practice “Daily Production Releases”)

I’m not concerned about AI taking the enjoyment of E2E test automation away from me because I know it simply won’t. The truth is that many fake test automation engineers can’t handle the real work — they make excuses and get caught up in trends or hype (such as AI or codeless test automation).

Too Many Failed JavaScript Test Automation Frameworks!