September 2026
Software Testing Is Changing Fast — But Quality Still Needs Humans
Software testing in 2026 looks very different from just a few years ago.
Artificial intelligence is generating test cases. Automation frameworks are getting smarter. Development teams are releasing software faster. Mobile applications change constantly, and websites have to work across an expanding collection of browsers, screen sizes, devices, APIs, and cloud services.
But one thing hasn’t changed:
Someone still has to make sure the software actually works.
Welcome to the September 2026 TechTestr.com update, where we look at what’s happening across software testing, website testing, mobile app testing, test automation, and quality assurance.
🤖 AI Is Becoming Part of the QA Team
AI is probably the biggest story in software testing right now.
Testing teams are using AI to help:
- Generate test cases
- Create test data
- Analyze requirements
- Suggest edge cases
- Generate automation code
- Find gaps in test coverage
- Analyze failures
- Summarize defects
- Maintain automation scripts
- Prioritize tests
- Create documentation
This is moving beyond experimentation.
A 2026 BrowserStack survey of more than 250 CTOs, engineering executives, and QA leaders reported that 61% of organizations surveyed were already using AI across most of their testing workflows.
That’s a significant shift.
But before anyone announces the death of the software tester, there is an important reality check.
AI can generate a test.
AI can generate Selenium or Playwright code.
AI can suggest what might be wrong.
It doesn’t automatically understand whether the application is actually providing a good experience for a real customer.
That remains an important human responsibility.
TechTestr Take
The future probably isn’t:
AI vs. software testers.
It’s:
Software testers using AI vs. software testers who don’t.
Learning how to review, correct, and improve AI-generated testing work may become just as important as learning another testing tool.
🧑💻 Manual Testing Isn’t Dead
We’ve been hearing about the death of manual testing for years.
It still hasn’t happened.
And it probably won’t.
Automation is excellent for predictable, repeatable testing.
Run these 500 regression tests.
Check these API responses.
Verify these fields.
Test these browsers.
Run this suite after every deployment.
Humans are better when the question becomes:
“What happens if I do something nobody expected?”
That’s exploratory testing.
Human testers notice confusing navigation, awkward workflows, misleading messages, strange visual behavior, and situations that technically “pass” but don’t make sense.
Current industry thinking increasingly favors a hybrid strategy combining automation with human testing rather than attempting to automate everything. TestRail’s 2026 testing trends report specifically identifies closer alignment between manual and automated testing as an important QA strategy.
A strong QA operation needs both.
🌐 Website Testing Is Getting More Complicated
A modern website isn’t really just a “website” anymore.
It might include:
JavaScript frameworks, third-party APIs, payment systems, advertising platforms, analytics scripts, databases, cloud infrastructure, authentication services, AI features and dozens of external integrations.
Change one component and something completely unrelated can break.
That’s why modern web testing needs to go beyond clicking links.
A serious website testing strategy should include:
Functional Testing
Does everything actually work?
Test forms, search boxes, navigation, account creation, logins, checkout systems, filters, buttons and error handling.
Cross-Browser Testing
Chrome working perfectly doesn’t mean Safari will.
And desktop Chrome working doesn’t guarantee mobile Chrome will.
Responsive Testing
Websites should be tested across desktop, tablet and smartphone screen sizes.
Performance Testing
A page technically loading isn’t enough.
Users expect speed.
Accessibility Testing
Accessibility is increasingly part of mainstream web quality rather than something teams check at the end of development.
The W3C recommends using WCAG 2.2 when developing or updating web accessibility policies.
Keyboard navigation, focus visibility, form labels, contrast, authentication accessibility and screen-reader compatibility deserve a place in the QA process.
📱 Mobile App Testing: Welcome to the Device Jungle
Testing a mobile application presents another challenge.
There isn’t one Android phone.
There isn’t one iPhone configuration.
Different devices bring different:
- Screen resolutions
- Operating-system versions
- Memory limitations
- Processors
- Network conditions
- Permissions
- Cameras
- Sensors
- Battery states
Then add interruptions.
What happens when someone receives a phone call?
What happens when Wi-Fi disappears?
What happens when the application goes into the background?
What happens when the user refuses location permission?
What happens when the battery is low?
What happens when the phone rotates halfway through a transaction?
These aren’t weird scenarios.
They’re normal mobile behavior.
Good mobile testing should therefore combine real-device testing, automated regression testing and hands-on exploratory testing.
⚙️ Selenium Isn’t Going Away
With all the attention going toward newer automation frameworks, you might think Selenium is disappearing.
It isn’t.
In fact, Selenium development remains very active.
Selenium 4.48 was released August 27, 2026, following Selenium 4.47 earlier in August and 4.46 in July.
The 4.48 release continued work around WebDriver BiDi while also including improvements to Grid and several language bindings.
A 2026 academic survey of Selenium users also found Selenium remains heavily used for functional and regression testing. At the same time, respondents identified familiar problems including brittleness, asynchronous behavior and flaky tests. The research identified Playwright as the most prominent alternative among respondents.
That creates an interesting automation landscape.
Selenium remains highly relevant, particularly in established enterprise environments.
But testers should also understand newer approaches.
🎭 Playwright Continues to Matter
If you’re building your testing skills in 2026, Playwright deserves attention.
The automation toolbox for a modern QA professional increasingly looks something like this:
Selenium + Playwright + API Testing + SQL + CI/CD + AI assistance
You don’t necessarily need to become an expert in everything.
But understanding several pieces makes you much more versatile.
Selenium experience remains valuable, especially when you’re working with an established automation framework.
Playwright is worth learning for modern browser automation.
API testing is increasingly essential because so much application functionality exists behind the user interface.
And AI tools can help accelerate all three.
🔄 Shift-Left Is Becoming Normal QA
One of the most important changes in testing isn’t actually a testing tool.
It’s when testing happens.
Traditional development often looked something like:
Requirements → Development → Testing → Release
There’s a problem with that model.
QA discovers major problems after developers have already built everything.
Modern teams increasingly move toward:
Requirements + Development + Testing → Continuous Feedback
This is commonly called shift-left testing.
TestRail identifies shift-left testing as one of its major software-testing trends for 2026, reflecting the push to identify problems earlier in the software development lifecycle.
QA should be asking questions before development starts.
Is the requirement testable?
What’s the expected behavior?
What happens when something fails?
What are the boundary conditions?
What happens when the user does something unexpected?
Finding an unclear requirement before development might take five minutes.
Finding it after the application has been built can create days of rework.
🔌 API Testing Is Becoming a Core QA Skill
If you’re a manual tester looking for your next technical skill, API testing deserves serious consideration.
Modern applications rely heavily on APIs.
Instead of testing only:
User → Website
QA increasingly needs to understand:
User → Front End → API → Service → Database
That doesn’t mean every tester needs to become a software developer.
You should understand concepts such as:
GET
POST
PUT/PATCH
DELETE
HTTP status codes
JSON
Authentication
Headers
Request bodies
Response validation
Once you understand these concepts, applications start making much more sense.
🛡️ Security Testing Is Becoming Everyone’s Problem
Security shouldn’t belong exclusively to the security team.
QA professionals don’t necessarily need to become penetration testers, but they should develop a security mindset.
Ask simple questions.
Can I access something I shouldn’t?
Can I manipulate this input?
Can I bypass this step?
What happens after multiple failed login attempts?
Are sensitive details exposed in an error message?
What happens when a session expires?
Quality isn’t simply:
Does the software work?
It increasingly means:
Does it work correctly, reliably, securely and safely?
🧠 The QA Engineer’s Role Is Expanding
Perhaps the biggest change happening in testing isn’t technology.
It’s the job itself.
AI can increasingly handle repetitive portions of test creation and execution, but human testers remain important for evaluating whether AI-generated tests actually represent requirements and real-world risks. Recent industry analysis describes test engineers moving toward broader quality orchestration and oversight as AI handles more generation and execution work.
That means tomorrow’s successful QA professional may spend less time simply executing predefined test cases and more time:
Understanding requirements.
Finding risks.
Designing test strategies.
Investigating failures.
Working with developers.
Reviewing AI-generated tests.
Understanding automation.
Analyzing quality metrics.
Improving processes.
And asking the question machines aren’t particularly good at asking:
“What are we forgetting?”
💼 Skills Worth Learning in 2026
If you’re building or refreshing your software-testing career, TechTestr recommends concentrating on a practical combination of skills:
Manual & Exploratory Testing — Learn test cases, scenarios, boundary testing, negative testing, regression testing and defect reporting.
Automation — Learn Selenium and/or Playwright well enough to understand how a maintainable automation framework works.
API Testing — Understand REST APIs, JSON, HTTP methods, authentication and response validation.
SQL — You don’t need to become a database administrator. Learn how to retrieve and validate application data.
DevOps & CI/CD — Understand how automated tests fit into modern deployment pipelines.
Accessibility — Learn WCAG fundamentals and combine automated accessibility checks with manual evaluation.
Performance Testing — Understand load, response times, bottlenecks and basic performance-testing concepts.
AI-Assisted Testing — Learn how to use AI to create tests, identify edge cases, analyze failures and generate automation—while verifying its work.
And don’t forget the skill that never goes obsolete:
Curiosity.
A great tester looks at perfectly functioning software and thinks:
“Okay…but how can I break it?”
🔮 TechTestr Prediction
The QA profession isn’t disappearing.
It’s broadening.
The tester who only follows a written test script may face increasing pressure from automation and AI.
The tester who understands the application, business requirements, customers, APIs, databases, automation, risk and AI becomes considerably more valuable.
The winning combination for the next generation of QA may be:
Human judgment + Automation + AI
Automation gives us speed.
AI gives us assistance.
Humans provide context.
And ultimately, software quality still depends on knowing what should be tested in the first place.
Final Test
Before we finish this month’s TechTestr update, here’s the simplest QA question of all:
Would you trust this software with your own money, information or business?
If the answer isn’t an immediate yes…
keep testing.
TechTestr.com
Software Testing • App Testing • Website Testing • Automation • Quality Assurance
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