Event overview

Recently, we got an opportunity to attend TribeQonf 2025 in Bengaluru, which was all about Testing in the Age of AI. It was a thrilling event with more than 600 software testers, enthusiasts, and industry leaders from all corners of India. The conversations centered around a powerful question: How is AI transforming the world of quality engineering?

The two-day event organised by The Test Tribe featured several different engaging talks, panel discussions, practical sessions, and demonstrations of the latest tools, also addressing several topics like responsible use of AI, best practices of prompt writing, and how the role of testers may change with the upcoming technology.

What Everyone was Talking About

Human-AI collaboration

One of the biggest takeaways from the event was the evolving relationship between testers and AI tools.AI will not replace testers but will assist them in working more efficiently. The emphasis was on the ability to harness both AI’s speed and scale and human insight. The testers continue to ensure the much-needed critical thinking and context that AI does not have. AI can do the heavy lifting, scanning logs, identifying patterns, generating test cases - but it’s still the human mind that provides critical thinking, domain context, and decision-making. The future of QA isn’t about man versus machine, rather it's about man with machine.

Responsible Uses of AI

A large number of sessions have emphasized on the need of ethically driven AI technologies, ensuring transparency, fairness and avoiding emergence of new risks using AI technologies.

The Rise of Prompt Engineering

Since AI-powered testing tools are strongly based on prompts, effective prompt writing became a defining skill that was widely discussed. Testers are now expected to communicate clearly with AI tools to extract accurate results, making prompt writing a core competency.

Automation Evolution

The debates concerning how the automation landscape is changing (autonomous testing agents and test case generation via AI, etc.) were eye-opening.

Testing Careers Are Changing Fast

Another aspect that was discussed by speakers is the fact that the role of the tester is evolving and it is expected to promote lifelong learning and continuous change with AI disrupting the environment.

Testers are no longer just viewed as users of tools to identify bugs, they are now being viewed as: quick responder engineers, tools analyzer, moral artificially intelligent reviewer, data quality advocates. This is a movement going on, and it is establishing new directions in quality engineering.

Busting the Myths

The testers will be substituted by AI.

Reality: AI could help, but it has no context, logic, or compassion as a human being.

The AI tools do not require monitoring.

Reality: They require close guidance, observation, and reinforcement.

We are too early to dig into AI tools.

Reality: Quite a number of teams are experimenting now and achieving valuable results.

Everything will be alright with AI.

Reality: AI is not always right. Even the testing of AI-generated responses is emerging as a major QA responsibility.

What are we taking back with us

Shifts of paradigm are happening in the QA role. Get prepared to learn, forget, and evolve.

There were many insightful moments, but a few core lessons stood out:

• AI + Human = Better Together Let the heavy lifting be done by AI; however, humans remain in control
• Domain Knowledge is Gold: AI does not possess the same level of intelligence around your users or product as you would
• The Art of Learning Prompting: The way you write prompts to AI is becoming an essential skill
• Don't Buy What People Sell You: No, the AI will not perform all the tests. Rather, it can make your testing better, provided you use it properly

Our greatest lesson is simply that AI is a supplement, not a simple workaround. It was nice to cut down the hype and hear actual stories from teams using, trying, failing fast, learning, and then getting better at AI. We returned with a stronger faith in:

• The significance of the domain expertise
• The potential of the human-AI collaboration
• The necessity to evolve and keep up with the tech

What do we plan to do next?

We came back with practical goals:

• Get hands-on AI testing tools
• Write more effective prompts
• Familiarize ourselves more on our product and domain expertise this cannot be substituted by AI
• Continue the discussion of the morality of AI in QA

Final Thoughts

TribeQonf 2025 was not any regular conference; it was an opportunity to draw a breath, recollect and recalibrate the way we look at the world of quality engineering and testing. With changes in the development of software because of AI, our role as testers is also changing. We are not being left behind but are entering into a new chapter.

If you’re a tester, now’s the time to lean in. Ask questions. Experiment. Learn how to work with AI, not against it. Because in the age of intelligent tools, the most powerful asset is still the human mind.