Every enterprise seeks to gain competitive advantage through the embrace of new, innovative technologies to either transform external customer engagement or unlock internal operational efficiencies. Test automation represents a powerful technology innovation by which product teams can unlock significant software development operational efficiencies. But test automation transformation initiatives come with notable risks that should be considered.

Think about the monotonous task of extracting data from sources like spreadsheets and emails and typing it into various systems. Repetitive tasks and manual workflows lurking inside business processes slow down teams, introduce human error, and erode employee engagement. Slow, ineffective processes can also kill an organization’s time to market and customer satisfaction.

Recent advances in artificial intelligence (AI), particularly in generative AI with the release of large language models (LLM) such as OpenAI’s GPT 3.5 and 4.0, Google’s Gemini, and Meta’s Llama in 2023, have had a profound effect on business procedures and practices in several industries, including software development, operation, and quality engineering (QE).

Quality Assurance (QA) teams must run extensive tests to ensure that a website or application performs as intended before release. However, rather than manually running these tests, which can hinder productivity, modern teams are using QA automation. By automating QA testing workflows, teams can rapidly execute these tests using standardized processes, frameworks, and software. Developers can quickly fix any errors and deliver high-quality code so that product teams can speed up release times.

Imagine transforming raw business data into actionable insights with minimal effort. This is the value proposition of automated analytics, a form of data analytics fast becoming more accessible among modern business intelligence (BI) and analytics software solution vendors. Independent software vendors (ISVs) and enterprise organizations at the cusp of investing in analytics struggle with manual data processes that are time-consuming and prone to errors.

Local governments aim to serve the needs of their communities by fostering a safe, prosperous, and vibrant environment where residents and businesses can thrive. But too often, inefficient processes and manual, paper-based tasks consume valuable time and resources. This leads to delays, errors, and inconsistencies in the delivery of essential services, eroding citizen satisfaction and trust.

According to BMC research, 90% of development managers believe that automating a large number of test cases may become the key to their success as the pressure on IT to accelerate innovation intensifies. However, automating testing processes involves an initial investment, and the benefits can vary between teams driven by multiple forces including the application architecture, number of platforms, and the automation technology choices.

3. Elevate risk governance to the next level. NatWest is the UK's leading business bank and second-largest retail mortgage provider. Lengthy change implementation processes hindered risk governance at the bank. Initiating change projects or launching products and applications meant navigating layers of policy checks and approvals, which could take up to 73 days.