Richard Seidl

This talk explores why software testing is fundamentally a people-centred discipline — especially in the age of artificial intelligence. While modern tools can generate test cases, heal locators, analyse risks, and automate execution, they cannot solve the core problems that cause quality to fail: miscommunication, silo thinking, lack of trust, and weak collaboration.

AI accelerates what and how we test, but it also amplifies existing team dynamics. Without strong human interaction, even the best test strategies and CI/CD pipelines lose their effectiveness. Through personal failure stories and real project experience, this session shows why treating testing as a purely technical activity leads to poor outcomes — and why the tester's most underrated skill is the ability to connect people. In an AI-driven landscape, these human capabilities become the deciding factor between faster feedback that improves quality and faster failure that ships problems sooner.

Richard "Richie" Seidl is a Software Testing Expert, Agile Quality Coach, and Podcast Host. Over the past 25 years, he has encountered a vast array of software throughout his professional journey: from the good to the bad, the large to the small, the new to the old. He's experienced software so magnificent it could bring one to tears, and others that make one cringe.

Richie has helped teams and projects in various industries, such as administration, finance, automotive, and logistics, to improve their software quality, implement agile testing, and establish test automation.

Richie is the author of several books on software testing, host of two Software Testing podcasts, and an international keynote speaker.

In 2025, he was awarded with the German Prize for Software Quality.