Applause 2026 State of Digital Quality Report: AI Use in Functional Testing Surges as Defects Rise

92% of organizations use AI in testing, up from 60% last year; 29% report defects increasing in number or severity

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Applause, the global leader in managed software testing services and digital quality, released The State of Digital Quality in Functional Testing 2026, its fifth annual industry report on global QA trends, revealing a dramatic acceleration in AI adoption in development and testing. Findings indicate more than 92% of respondents use AI in the testing process, up from 60% last year. However, increased AI adoption has not resulted in fewer issues, with 29% reporting an increase in the number or severity of functional testing defects.

The findings highlight AI’s massive impact on the software development and QA community. For nearly nine in 10 respondents (89%), AI has changed the way they test applications and digital experiences, while 86% consider human involvement extremely important to functional testing. As organizations increasingly use AI in both development and testing, the results underscore the need to determine the right balance of AI, automation and human expertise to maintain quality while keeping pace with faster release cycles.

Key findings:

AI has quickly and significantly altered the functional testing process.

• More than 92% of respondents use AI in the testing process, versus 60% last year.
• 89% said AI has changed the way they test digital experiences and apps.
• Only 8% of respondents stated that they don’t use AI for any aspect of testing.

Now that AI is integral to the testing process, organizations are struggling with quality.

• Nearly a third (29%) of respondents reported that the number or severity of defects has increased.
• 15% said both the number and severity of functional testing issues have increased.
• 66% of organizations have documented policies around AI use in development and testing, with 20% considering their guidelines “clear and robust.”

Human involvement remains essential in functional testing.

• 86% of respondents consider human involvement extremely important to functional testing, while 13% consider it somewhat important.
• 57% said human involvement is critical for providing qualitative feedback through peer review.
• Humans are equally important (57%) to designing test strategies based on real-world user behavior.

“AI has accelerated the development process, and that's changing what teams need to test and how they need to test it,” said Tacita Morway, Chief Technology Officer, Applause. “Traditional automated testing answers the question: can this task be completed? A human tester answers a harder one: could a real person work out how to do this, and get it done? Teams are giving up that second question as release cycles get faster than people can keep up with, and I think that accounts for a lot of the defect increase we're seeing. The work now is to get that kind of human testing coverage back, but at machine speed. That takes AI, automation and people together.”

Morway continued, “This gets harder with evaluating agentic systems that make decisions and take action on their own. With an agent, there's no fixed set of steps to check — the same request can take a different path every time. The failures that matter most happen when the system is effectively making a judgment call and gets it wrong — inaccurate financial transactions, exposed sensitive information, dangerous guidance. Those carry real consequences for organizations and their customers, and you can't catch them by confirming a script still passes. Systems this powerful and this unpredictable need a materially different approach to evaluation.”

Additional findings:

AI has had a greater impact on development than testing — but that gap is narrowing.

• Respondents are generally aligned on whether AI has had a slight, moderate or significant impact on development and QA.
• 79% believe that AI has had a significant or moderate impact on development versus 72% for testing.
• Less than 10% said AI has had no impact at all on development (3%) or quality assurance (9%).

AI use cases in development and testing are growing in number and popularity.

• 62% of respondents use AI to generate or complete code with in-editor coding assistants.
• 59% use it for reviewing code and creating documentation.
• The top testing use cases are creating test cases (65%), writing test automation scripts (62%), and finding and addressing coverage gaps (48%).

“Shipping faster only helps if you can still trust what you're shipping. That means testing that’s grounded in real-world context and backed by human expertise,” continued Morway. “Our survey showed 86% of respondents understand that human involvement is essential to functional testing — but many of those organizations are struggling to preserve that human perspective while supporting faster development. Traditional automation doesn’t solve that. Intelligent automation does — grounded in the product, the user and the risks that matter. Human expertise helps shape what gets tested and how, and fills the gaps where automation can't or shouldn't.”

Applause’s State of Digital Quality content series provides insight into the latest software testing and QA practices and trends, including preferred methods and tools, as well as common challenges faced by software development and testing professionals worldwide. The most recent report is based on Applause’s August 2026 global survey of industry experts and professionals plus interviews with technology leaders regarding AI’s increasing role in software development and testing, and its impact on digital quality.

Find additional resources here:

• REPORT: The 2026 State of Digital Quality in Functional Testing
• BLOG POST: How AI is Changing Software Development and Testing

About Applause
Applause is the global leader in managed software testing services and digital quality. Through AI, automation and the world’s largest independent testing community, we help leading enterprises validate every aspect of their apps and other digital experiences. Our fully managed approach makes it easy for organizations to test under real-world conditions, across devices, locations and use cases — at the speed and scale required in the age of AI. Applause alleviates pressure on internal teams by helping expand testing coverage, keep pace with modern release cycles, and deliver exceptional quality to their users around the world. With deep expertise in payment testing, accessibility, UX and AI evaluation, Applause is a trusted partner to the world’s most innovative brands. Visit applause.com to learn more.