SmartBear Introduces BearQ™Autonomous Testing for Software Applications, Sets New Standard for Application Integrity

New survey finds 7 of 10 software and QA experts say application quality is suffering with rise of AI-driven development; BearQ autonomously explores and validates that software behaves as intended

SOMERVILLE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--SmartBear, helping teams build, test, and ship quality software at AI speed and scale, today announced the release of BearQ, the agentic QA system with always-on teammates that autonomously explore, learn, and test applications, delivering continuous application integrity so software works as intended.

BearQ is a foundational part of SmartBear’s product suite, the SmartBear Application Integrity Core™, that spans the SDLC and meets customers where they are in their testing journey. Built for the age of AI-driven development, BearQ transforms software testing from a static safety net into an intelligent, adaptive system that continuously explores and validates real user experiences. BearQ enables application integrity, which SmartBear defines as continuous, measurable assurance that software works as intended with governance to operate at AI speed and scale.

“The AI-driven gap between the speed of software development and the ability to test resulting applications is getting wider, creating a huge potential for application failures that hurt companies, consumers and industries,” said Dan Faulkner, SmartBear CEO. “BearQ will be a critical autonomous exploration and testing solution for the industry to close these gaps and deliver enhanced application integrity. SmartBear’s long history of innovation in software quality and testing makes SmartBear positioned to address this disruption to the SDLC.”

As the use of AI coding tools increases, application testing is falling behind given highly manual processes and inadequate automation. Companies already face a tradeoff: forgo validation of applications or delay releases to await testing. Given that AI coding will move even faster over time, testing coverage will erode further and quality will become a bottleneck, not a strategic advantage.

A recent SmartBear survey of 273 software testing and quality decision makers underscores the depth of the problem. In the SmartBear Study: Closing the AI Software Quality Gap, nine of 10 survey respondents have adopted AI coding tools. Seven of 10 are concerned that quality is already suffering, 60% have experienced quality issues in the past year, and 68% are worried that faster AI development will create testing bottlenecks.

“BearQ is a game changer in how we look across our application surface,” said Jim Butler, VP of Engineering for Follett Software. “With it, our test engineers expect to experience huge time savings while still ensuring application integrity.”

Shifting Validation
Application integrity shifts the software industry’s QA focus from “does the code work?” to “does the application experience match the intended outcome?” BearQ enables this paradigm shift by placing application understanding and intent at the center of testing. Rather than relying on predefined test cases or brittle automation scripts, its always-on QA teammates manage the testing lifecycle by discovering how the application works through autonomous exploration, creating and maintaining tests automatically, validating critical user journeys continuously, and reporting on quality, coverage, and risk.

Unlike traditional testing and automation that depend on constant human effort and upkeep, BearQ:

• Is fully autonomous and thinks and tests like a real user. Traditional QA relies on code-based testing, predefined test cases, or automation that can break under pressure. Teams can gain a false sense of confidence from passing tests while bugs slip through production. BearQ explores an application the way a user would. It discovers and prioritizes testing to the most important workflows. This ensures that the experiences that matter actually get tested. BearQ thinks and tests like a real user, validating outcomes rather than just code execution.
• Adapts with your application. Modern applications evolve constantly, but traditional test automation scripts break with these changes. As your application changes, BearQ adapts automatically, ensuring that application changes don’t trigger false alarms. This prevents automation decay and ensures ongoing validation of application integrity.
• Multiplies the impact of any QA team. Manual testing doesn’t scale and automation requires constant care. BearQ acts as always-on teammates that autonomously discover workflows, create and maintain tests, and execute validation. This dramatically expands coverage and allows QA teams to operate at the pace of AI-driven development.
• Provides built-in governance control. BearQ includes structured guardrails, contextual controls, and transparent visibility into agent activity, so teams can define what agents should validate, where they should explore, and how testing aligns with business intent. This allows you to have your agentic QA team explore and test in ways that are consistent with your business practices.

“While the use of AI increases the speed at which massive amounts of code are created, developers find that much of that code needs significant remediation,” said Melinda Ballou, research director for IDC's AI Assurance, ALM, Quality and Portfolio Strategies. "This demands test automation and agentic testing, with effective governance and agent orchestration, as testing becomes increasingly autonomous. Products such as SmartBear's BearQ exemplify the imperative for use of AI for testing and contextualized AI Assurance.”

BearQ, initially focused on web applications developed by mid-market SaaS providers, will shortly support API testing, mobile applications, and on-premise environments. To learn more about BearQ and apply for GA Early Access, click here.

More survey results are available here.

About SmartBear
SmartBear delivers application integrity for modern tech stacks, ensuring continuous, measurable assurance that software just works as intended – with governance to operate at AI speed and scale. SmartBear offers deep test automation, API lifecycle management, and observability capabilities. With integrations across the SDLC, it sets a new quality standard for application delivery teams.

SmartBear is trusted by more than 16 million developers, testers, and software engineers across 32,000 organizations, including 75% of the largest financial institutions and industry leaders such as Adobe, JetBlue, and Microsoft. SmartBear’s best-loved brands include Swagger, TestComplete, Reflect, QMetry, Zephyr, and more. As stewards of a collaborative open source community, SmartBear meets customers where they are to make our technology-driven world a better place. Learn more at www.smartbear.com, or follow us on LinkedIn, X, and Reddit.