How to Use AI in Performance Testing

When running performance tests, you might find it challenging to validate different performance parameters like response times, throughput, and resource utilization. Such evaluations can be complicated and time-consuming and often involve a considerable amount of manual work.

However, one solution to overcome this challenge is to use AI in performance testing, which can automatically analyze (or evaluate) various performance parameters. This is a process where intelligent algorithms can simulate realistic traffic patterns of software and predict its behavior under certain conditions to identify performance bottlenecks. This enables quicker and more robust performance testing.

In this blog, we will explore using AI in performance testing.

What Is AI in Performance Testing?

AI in performance testing uses artificial intelligence techniques to make testing more efficient and intelligent in evaluating software performance. It automates the process of analyzing large test data, identifying traffic patterns and providing real-time suggestions to predict how a software application behaves under varying load conditions.

This allows you to quickly spot performance bottlenecks and fix them without doing everything manually. Using AI, you can also automate writing test cases and test scripts, further speeding up performance testing.

Why Leverage AI in Performance Testing?

Artificial intelligence brings significant benefits to performance testing, addressing the challenges of traditional testing methods.

Here is how leveraging AI in performance testing can enhance your entire test process:

• AI automates system resources according to the magnitude of their use at a given point in time so that they are optimally used, as well as to avoid all overload during peak periods.
• By analyzing latency issues from distributed systems, AI can identify that there is latency and drill down to the exact components (i.e., network, database, server) that are the root cause of the issue.
• AI can help simulate and predict how a software application will perform when the number of users increases. It allows more insight into scalability without running performance tests at extreme levels.
• Artificial intelligence can analyze large amounts of historical data to predict how a software application will behave under different loads. It analyzes past software performance and user behavior, and on the basis of that, AI can recognize potential issues that may slow down the software application.

This predictive analysis helps you plan for capacity and scalability ahead of time. Rather than waiting for issues to occur in real-world scenarios, AI can detect these issues early, making sure the software can handle future expected loads.

• AI can detect anomalies in real-time during load testing. AI algorithms can analyze performance metrics, user interactions, and other important data during test execution. It allows early identification of performance issues, such as slow response times, high resource utilization and more.
• AI-powered tools can automate repetitive tasks such as test generation, test reporting, and more, allowing you to run performance tests faster and focus on other parameters.

Top AI Tools for Performance Testing

QA teams may require AI testing tools to evaluate the performance of software applications in various ways. However, choosing the right tool depends on your project’s particular needs and objectives.

Here are some of the top AI tools for performance testing:

LambdaTest

LambdaTest is an AI-powered test orchestration and execution platform that offers manual and automation testing at scale. It comes with HyperExecute, a cloud-based AI-augmented test orchestration platform that provides performance testing up to 70% faster with AI-driven features. HyperExecute seamlessly integrates with performance testing tools like Apache JMeter, allowing users to execute existing JMeter tests without managing separate infrastructure.

Features:

• Automatically groups and distributes tests across different environments, reordering them based on past executions to surface failures faster.
• Accelerates testing by intelligently targeting the right APIs, preparing test data, and generating post-testing analytics.
• Identifies various error categories, helping in faster resolution of test failures.
• Automates the identification of failure patterns, reducing the time and effort required for manual log analysis.

To get started, refer to this documentation on performance testing with HyperExecute.

Additionally, LambdaTest also offers KaneAI, a GenAI native QA Agent-as-a-Service platform to enhance automation testing for high-speed quality engineering teams. It uses natural language to help create, evolve and debug tests. It simplifies the process of starting test automation by reducing the expertise and time typically required.

Testim

Testim is an AI-powered test automation tool that speeds up the creation and maintenance of performance tests. It uses Generative AI and machine learning algorithms to generate test cases, execute them, and maintain them, making it suitable for web and mobile applications.

Features:

• Speeds up test creation by using AI to build and customize test steps, reducing effort and enabling non-technical users.
• Offers smart locators that self-heal as UI elements change, reducing maintenance efforts.
• Ensures UI consistency with AI-powered visual testing that detects visual differences across versions.

StormForge

StormForge is an AI-driven performance testing tool for optimizing and automating Kubernetes applications. It offers tools for testing application performance, analyzing costs, and optimizing resource usage, helping organizations improve the efficiency and reliability of their containerized applications on Kubernetes.

Features:

• Analyzes data to predict performance issues and recommend proactive optimizations.
• Optimizes resource allocation, reducing cloud costs while maintaining high software performance.
• Simulates real-world traffic conditions, identifying bottlenecks and performance improvement areas.

Functionize

Functionize leverages AI and machine learning to improve test creation and execution. It offers natural language-based test scripting, making it accessible to non-technical teams while optimizing performance testing with smarter automation.

Features:

• Generates test cases by analyzing and understanding application behavior.
• Updates and adjusts test scripts automatically when changes occur in the software application, ensuring that tests remain functional after updates.
• Uses computer vision techniques for full-page screenshot comparisons to identify visual discrepancies.

Telerik Test Studio

Telerik Test Studio is an automated testing tool designed for desktop, web and mobile applications. It supports functional, load, performance, and API testing to ensure software quality. Both technical and non-technical users can use Telerik Test Studio to run and maintain automated tests.

Features:

• Automates UI validation using AI-driven visual checks.
• Integrates with various test management tools and uses AI to speed up test case design, management, and execution.
• Uses AI to automatically detect and fix issues in test scripts when software elements change.

Current AI Trends in Performance Testing

The future of AI in performance testing will focus on improving productivity. According to the Future of Quality Assurance Report, 60.60% of organizations think that manual intervention will still be important in the testing process. However, AI will help make tasks faster and easier, working alongside humans to get better results.

Let’s look at how AI will impact performance testing:

• AI helps automate the process of writing test scripts. Generating tests with AI improves test coverage and reduces the need for manually writing test scripts. As software evolves, AI can even adjust the test scripts accordingly, ensuring that they remain updated without requiring manual intervention.
• AI using predictive analytics will transform load testing by replicating real-world user behavior. Using historical data, AI will estimate software performance under various load conditions, identifying potential issues.
• AI enables continuous, real-time monitoring of software performance. By analyzing real-time data, AI can instantly detect anomalies or patterns that indicate performance issues.

It will allow teams to address issues before they impact end users, reducing downtime and improving user experience. AI will also suggest optimizations, providing actionable insights for performance improvement. With real-time analysis, teams can be more proactive in maintaining software health.

• AI helps maintain your test scripts by automatically updating and fixing them. This process of self-healing test automation further expedites your performance testing process. As software applications change, AI will detect broken test scripts and adjust them without human involvement.

This self-healing ability will ensure seamless performance testing with minimal manual effort, even as software applications are updated.

• As AI integrates into DevOps and CI/CD pipelines, performance testing will become a continuous and automated process throughout the development lifecycle. AI will run performance tests automatically with each code change, ensuring continuous monitoring and improvement.

Shortcomings in Traditional Performance Testing

Before AI was introduced, traditional performance testing faced many challenges and limitations. No matter how experienced the tester was, teams had to handle several common challenges without the help of AI.

Some of these challenges are as follows:

• Traditional performance testing may not account for dynamic resource allocation, resulting in inefficient resource usage. It often fails to adjust to varying load conditions. This leads to potential overloads or underutilization.
• Conventional methods often rely on manual test cases written by testers regarding user actions and traffic. However, these may not capture real-time variation in user behavior, leading to inaccurate response time analysis.
• It can be challenging to simulate realistic traffic loads in traditional testing environments. This can lead to testing scenarios that might not accurately reflect the software behavior under high-traffic conditions.
• As software applications grew in size and complexity, performance testing needed to scale accordingly. What started as tests with dozens or hundreds of users might later need to simulate thousands or millions of users.

The testing tools capable of handling such a scale were often expensive and difficult to manage. Failing to properly predict and handle traffic spikes or heavy user loads could lead to costly downtime.

• Traditional methods struggle to capture the full range of real user interactions, including varied patterns, dynamic inputs, and unexpected workflows. It results in performance tests that do not accurately reflect actual usage, leaving critical issues undetected until they occur in real-world conditions.

Note

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Best Practices for Using AI in Performance Testing

Below are some best practices for effectively using AI in performance testing:

• Every software project is different, so it’s important to adjust AI testing parameters to match the requirements needed for performance testing. Customizing tests helps keep up with project goals and changes in software or user behavior. Using AI to tweak the tests can make sure they stay relevant and effective as things change.
• High-quality test data is key to accurate performance testing. To catch issues early, it needs to cover different scenarios such as response time, throughput, resource utilization and more. Having a variety of test data helps simulate real-world conditions and ensures better test coverage.
• AI is good for automating repetitive tasks in performance testing, but human testers are still needed. They bring creativity and insights that AI can’t. Working together, AI can handle repetitive work while humans focus on solving complex problems and improving the testing process.
• AI gets better with regular updates. To keep it useful, you need to retrain models with new data and create feedback loops. It helps AI stay up-to-date with software changes and find new performance issues faster.

Conclusion

AI is changing the way performance testing is done, making it faster and more efficient. It can automate tasks, predict issues before they happen, and help teams fix issues quickly. AI is also useful for accurately detecting issues in real-time, adapting to the software changes, and enhancing test coverage.

However, as AI is getting deeper into performance testing processes, it will not just continue to perform the tasks but also simplify the processes to make the testing more efficient as well as require less human input. The role of AI in performance testing is promising and will enhance teams to provide quality software efficiently.

Citations

Performance Testing Using Machine Learning:
https://www.internationaljournalssrg.org/IJCSE/2023/Volume10-Issue6/IJCSE-V10I6P105.pdf

Tahneet Kanwal

Tahneet Kanwal is a software engineer with a passion for frontend development and a keen eye for user experience. With a strong foundation in web technologies, she brings a practical perspective to her writing. As a technical content writer at LambdaTest, Tahneet combines her engineering expertise with her communication skills to craft engaging, SEO-friendly articles. Her work spans various topics in web development, software testing, and emerging tech trends, keeping readers informed and inspired.

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