In regulated industries, compliance, consistency, and safety are paramount. Structure and predictability are the hallmarks of a regulated test strategy. As a result, software testing is often limited to step-by-step, scripted procedures. Yet, unscripted exploratory testing is emerging as a modern best practice, even in highly regulated domains. At first glance, exploratory testing may appear to be at odds with the rules of a regulated industry.

The current state of AI, despite the relevant infancy of the tools, showcases promising potential. While human assistance is still needed, the convergence of chat UI and large language models allows users to ask for what they want in a natural language, and the technology is growing intelligent enough to respond or even take action.