New Year, New Bugs: What QA Should Focus On in 2026

Another year, another round of people telling us QA is dead.

“AI will replace testers!” they said in 2023.

“Manual testing is obsolete!” they said in 2024.

“You’re all getting replaced by agents!” they’re saying in 2025.

Spoiler alert: we’re all still here.

And after 10+ years in QA, I can tell you with absolute certainty: we’ll still be here in 2026. And 2027. And long after the current hype cycle moves on to the next shiny thing.

But that doesn’t mean we should just coast. The field is changing. The tools are evolving. And if you want to stay relevant, valuable, and employed, there are some things worth focusing on.

Here’s what actually matters for QA in 2026.

1. Stop Listening to the AI Doomers

Let’s get this out of the way first.

In 2026, you’re going to encounter a lot of people with agendas trying to tell you that you’re obsolete. That you’re irrelevant. That AI will take your job and you should panic.

You know what you should do?

Smile. Nod politely. And ignore them completely.

Here’s the Reality

The same people who are hyping AI as the death of QA are the same people who were shipping garbage code before LLMs existed. The only difference now is they can generate more of the same crappy code in less time.

AI isn’t making their code better. It’s making their code faster.

There’s a difference.

I’ve seen AI-generated test cases. They’re not bad. They’re also not particularly good. They follow patterns. They check obvious scenarios. They miss the weird edge cases that only a human tester with actual product knowledge would think to test.

AI can generate a login test. Cool.

Can it figure out that your payment processing breaks specifically when a user has a hyphenated last name, is using Safari on an iPad in landscape mode, and tries to apply a discount code during checkout? No. Because that requires understanding how your janky legacy system interacts with your poorly-documented API and your overly-clever frontend validation logic.

That’s what testers do. We find the problems that nobody thought to look for.

The Bubble Will Burst

Here’s what’s going to happen in 2026:

A bunch of companies will go all-in on AI-generated code. They’ll lay off QA teams because “AI can test itself now.” They’ll ship faster than ever.

And their products will be a disaster.

Support tickets will pile up. Customers will churn. Revenue will drop. And executives will start asking uncomfortable questions about why quality is suddenly in the toilet.

Then they’ll quietly start hiring testers again. But they won’t call it that. They’ll call it “AI Quality Validation Engineer” or some other buzzword-laden title that makes it sound like they’re still on the cutting edge.

But the job will be the same: find the bugs before customers do.

The AI doomers will move on to the next thing. Blockchain for enterprise. Quantum computing for startups. Whatever the next hype cycle is.

And you’ll still be here. Finding bugs. Shipping quality software. Getting paid.

So What Should You Do About AI?

Use it. Don’t fear it.

AI is a tool. Like Selenium. Like Postman. Like your brain.

Use AI to generate test data. Use it to write boilerplate test scripts. Use it to draft bug report descriptions. Use it to speed up the boring parts of your job.

But don’t let it replace your judgment. Don’t let it replace your domain knowledge. Don’t let it replace your ability to think critically about what actually needs testing.

AI can help you work faster. It can’t replace your expertise.

If someone tells you AI will replace testers, ask them who’s going to validate that the AI’s tests are actually testing the right things. Ask them who’s going to catch the bugs the AI misses. Ask them who’s going to explain to the CEO why the AI shipped a feature that deletes customer data.

Then watch them fumble for an answer.

2. Communication Still Matters More Than Tools

I’m going to say something controversial: you could replace every testing tool in your stack tomorrow and it wouldn’t matter if you can’t communicate.

The best test automation framework in the world is useless if you can’t explain to your team why a bug is Critical and needs to be fixed before release.

The most comprehensive test coverage is meaningless if you can’t articulate the risks of shipping on time versus shipping with quality.

The most detailed bug report ever written won’t get fixed if you deliver it like you’re personally attacking the developer who wrote the code.

What This Means for 2026

In 2026, focus less on learning the hot new testing tool and more on learning how to:

Translate technical problems into business impact.

“The API is returning 500 errors” means nothing to a product manager. “20% of checkout attempts are failing, which will cost us approximately $50K in lost revenue this week” gets attention.

Advocate for quality without being a blocker.

“We can’t ship this” makes you the bad guy. “Here are three options with different risk levels, which one makes sense given our timeline?” makes you a partner.

Build relationships before you need them.

The time to establish trust with your developers is not during a production incident. It’s during the boring Tuesday afternoon when you caught a bug early and communicated it respectfully.

Ask better questions.

“Why did you code it this way?” sounds accusatory. “Help me understand the constraints you were working with” opens a conversation.

The Hard Truth

Technical skills get you the interview. Communication skills get you promoted.

You can be the best tester in the world, but if nobody wants to work with you, your career has a ceiling.

In 2026, invest in your people skills as much as your technical skills.

3. Collaboration Beats Tools Every Time

Here’s a prediction for 2026: the teams shipping the highest quality software won’t be the ones with the best tools. They’ll be the ones with the best collaboration.

I’ve worked with teams that had top-tier automation frameworks, cutting-edge monitoring, and every premium tool you can name. They still shipped garbage because testers, developers, and product managers worked in silos and communicated through tickets.

I’ve also worked with teams using basic tools, manual testing, and spreadsheets. They shipped rock-solid products because everyone actually talked to each other.

What Good Collaboration Looks Like

Testers are involved early.

Not “here’s the finished code, go test it.” But “here’s what we’re building, what do you think could go wrong?”

When testers review requirements before development starts, bugs get prevented instead of just detected.

Developers and testers work together.

Not adversarial. Not “us vs them.” Sitting together, looking at the same screen, figuring out why the thing is broken.

Pair testing with developers catches bugs faster than any automation framework ever will.

Product managers understand the cost of speed.

Not “ship it now, fix it later.” But “here’s what we’re risking by shipping on this timeline, let’s make an informed decision.”

When PMs understand that “just one more feature” has a quality cost, they make better prioritization decisions.

How to Build This in 2026

Start small. Pick one thing:

• Invite developers to watch you test
• Ask to sit in on design reviews
• Offer to help write acceptance criteria
• Run a “bug bash” session with the whole team

You don’t need permission to collaborate. You just need to start doing it.

4. Domain Knowledge Is Your Moat

You know what AI can’t replicate? Context.

AI doesn’t know that your checkout flow is extra fragile because it was duct-taped together during a midnight release three years ago and nobody’s touched it since because everyone’s afraid it’ll break.

AI doesn’t know that your biggest customer has a weird workflow that nobody else uses but generates 40% of your revenue, so breaking it would be catastrophic.

AI doesn’t know that the CEO hates the color blue, so any bug involving blue UI elements gets escalated to Critical regardless of actual impact.

You know this stuff. Because you’ve been there. Because you’ve shipped releases with this team. Because you understand not just the product, but the people and the history and the politics.

That’s domain knowledge. And it’s the most valuable thing you have.

How to Build Domain Knowledge in 2026

Ask why more often.

When a developer makes a decision, ask why. Not accusatorily. Genuinely. “Why did we build it this way?” “Why does this integration work like that?”

Understanding the reasoning behind decisions makes you a better tester.

Learn the business, not just the product.

Who are your customers? What problems are you solving for them? Why do they pay you?

The more you understand the business, the better you can prioritize testing.

Document what you learn.

That weird edge case you discovered? Write it down. That legacy system quirk? Document it. That production incident and what caused it? Keep a record.

Future you (and future testers) will thank you.

Why This Matters

Anyone can learn a tool. Not everyone can build deep product knowledge.

In 2026, your domain expertise is what makes you irreplaceable. Not your automation scripts. Not your certifications. Your understanding of this specific product, this specific team, this specific context.

AI can generate test cases for a generic login flow.

You can test the actual messy reality of your specific login flow with all its quirks and legacy baggage and undocumented behavior.

That’s the difference.

5. Pick Your Battles (Seriously)

In 2026, you’re going to find bugs. Lots of bugs.

Some will matter. Some won’t.

And if you fight for every single bug with the same intensity, people will stop listening to you.

The Reality Check

Not every bug is worth fighting over.

That typo in the error message that nobody will ever see? Low priority. Let it go.

That button that’s 2 pixels misaligned? Unless the CEO specifically complained about it, let it go.

That edge case that only happens when users do seven specific things in a specific order that nobody actually does? Probably let it go.

Save your energy. Save your credibility. Save your fights for the bugs that actually matter.

What “Actually Matters” Means

Bugs that:

• Affect core functionality
• Impact paying customers
• Violate security or compliance requirements
• Cost the company money
• Create data integrity issues
• Break contractual obligations

Those are worth fighting for. Those are worth escalating. Those are worth pushing back on deadlines.

Everything else? Document it, log it, and let the team prioritize it.

Why This Matters in 2026

Your credibility is a finite resource.

If you mark everything Critical, nothing is Critical.

If you fight every battle, people stop taking you seriously.

Pick your battles. When you do fight, fight hard and fight with data. But choose wisely.

6. Automate the Boring Stuff, Not Everything

Hot take for 2026: you don’t need 100% test automation coverage.

You need automation for the things that are:

• Repetitive
• Time-consuming
• Prone to human error
• Need to run frequently

Everything else? Maybe manual is fine.

The Automation Trap

I’ve seen teams spend six months building a comprehensive automation suite that covers every possible scenario. Beautiful code. Perfect coverage. Runs on every commit.

Then a major refactor happens and the entire suite breaks. Now you’re spending more time maintaining tests than actually testing.

Meanwhile, the product is shipping with bugs because nobody’s doing exploratory testing anymore. Everyone’s too busy fixing broken automation.

A Better Approach for 2026

Automate strategically:

Automate smoke tests.
The stuff that tells you if the build is fundamentally broken. Fast, reliable, high value.

Automate regression tests for stable features.
The core flows that rarely change. Login, checkout, search. The stuff you need to verify constantly but doesn’t need human creativity.

Automate data setup.
The tedious part of testing is often just getting the system into the right state. Automate that. Then explore manually.

Don’t automate exploration.
The best bugs are found by curious humans poking at things. By trying workflows the developers didn’t anticipate. By noticing things that “work but feel wrong.”

You can’t automate intuition.

The Goal

Automation should free you up to do more interesting testing, not replace testing entirely.

In 2026, focus on automating the repetitive stuff so you have more time for the creative stuff.

7. Your Mental Health Matters

Real talk: QA can be stressful.

You’re the person who has to tell people their work isn’t ready. You’re the person who has to push back on deadlines. You’re the person who gets blamed when bugs make it to production.

It’s exhausting.

In 2026, take care of yourself.

What This Looks Like

Set boundaries.

You don’t have to respond to Slack messages at 11 PM. You don’t have to work unpaid overtime to meet someone else’s unrealistic deadline. You don’t have to sacrifice your mental health for a release.

Document your work.

Not because you’re paranoid (though that helps). But because when things go wrong, you want receipts that show you did your job, flagged the risks, and weren’t the one who made the bad decision.

Find your people.

Other testers get it. QA communities, LinkedIn groups, Reddit threads. Find people who understand what you’re dealing with. Vent. Commiserate. Share war stories.

Remember it’s just software.

If a bug makes it to production, the company will survive. You’ll survive. It’s not life or death. It’s software. It can be fixed.

Why This Matters

You can’t do good work if you’re burned out.

In 2026, prioritize sustainability over heroics.

What Actually Matters

After 10+ years in QA, here’s what I’ve learned:

The tools change. The methodologies change. The hype cycles come and go.

But the fundamentals stay the same.

Good testers:

• Find important problems before customers do
• Communicate effectively with their teams
• Build relationships based on trust and respect
• Understand the business and the product deeply
• Pick their battles wisely
• Use tools strategically, not religiously
• Take care of themselves so they can sustain their careers

That’s what mattered in 2015. That’s what matters in 2025. That’s what will matter in 2026.

One Last Thing

To the AI doomers, the automation evangelists, and the people declaring QA dead:

See you in 2026. We’ll still be here. Finding bugs. Shipping quality software. Getting paid.

You can go back to your chicken farms now.

To everyone else: happy new year. Keep testing. Keep learning. Keep ignoring the noise and focusing on what actually matters.

2026 is going to be a good year for QA. Not because of some revolutionary new tool or methodology. But because good testers will keep doing what good testers do: making software better.

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See you next year. Happy testing.