Using AI in Regression Testing to Boost Software Quality

Regression testing is the process of ensuring that new code changes in software applications do not introduce bugs or issues in existing functionality.

However, as your software scales, traditional regression testing can become time-consuming and resource-intensive. Therefore, leveraging AI in regression testing helps you mitigate these challenges. It optimizes test selection, automates test generation and execution, and enhances your overall defect detection process.

In this blog, we explore using AI in regression testing.

What Is AI in Regression Testing?

AI in regression testing uses artificial Intelligence tools and techniques to automate and enhance the entire regression testing process.

While traditional manual regression testing is heavily dependent on human effort, AI has come up with intelligent test automation and data-driven insights to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the regression test process.

You can leverage AI-powered regression testing tools that can dynamically adapt to changes in test scripts and prioritize test cases along with predicting areas that are highly likely to get the majority of impact when there are any new updates.

They can also analyze defect patterns, user behavior, and historical data to recognize risk-prone areas and ensure the thorough testing of critical functionalities.

Challenges With Traditional Regression Testing

Traditional regression testing ensures that new changes do not break existing functionality, but it comes with significant challenges.

As software scales, you need to maintain an efficient and effective regression testing process. However, this can be increasingly difficult.

Here are some key challenges associated with traditional regression testing:

• Running various test cases that verify specific functionalities after each update is tedious and time-consuming, especially as the test suite grows.
• Since executing all test cases after every code change is inefficient, determining which ones to run becomes increasingly complex.
• As software evolves, test suites require continuous updates and additions to remain relevant as per the current testing requirements, adding to the maintenance burden.
• Manually performing regression testing is a repetitive and monotonous task, leading to is a repetitive and monotonous task, leading to a decline in attention and motivation.

To overcome these limitations, it’s important to leverage AI-powered testing solutions by introducing automation, intelligence, and efficiency into the process.

Why Use AI in Regression Testing?

AI enhances regression testing by making it faster, smarter, and more efficient. Let’s look at some benefits of using AI in regression testing:

• AI testing tools can easily analyze usage patterns, user behavior, and historical data to identify gaps in the current test suites. This helps the QA team thoroughly test critical workflows and edge cases by improving existing ones or suggesting new ones.
• Incorporating AI tools in regression testing can help you with features to generate test cases and generate tests, speeding up your entire testing cycle.
• AI automatically adapts test scripts to address any issues that arise due to changes in the existing codebase.

For example, change in locators for UI elements. In such scenarios, AI reduces the need for manual script updates as there are features called “self-healing” offered by AI automation tools.

This minimizes maintenance effort, prevents test failures due to minor changes, and ensures that test suites remain reliable and efficient over time.

• AI leverages ML algorithms to recognize anomalies and predict areas of software applications that are prone to failure, enhancing the overall defect detection process.

It also analyzes historical data on defects, identifying risk-prone areas and prioritizing them for testing. Moreover, it can easily detect patterns that are rather subtle for humans, as a manual tester might miss them.

Note

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Use Cases of AI in Regression Testing

To understand how organizations can make the most out of AI in regression testing, it’s important to understand that there are different use cases of regression testing where AI plays a specific role.

Let’s take a look at them:

• Test Case and Test Script Generation: AI analyzes user behavior and automatically creates regression test cases, covering edge cases as well.

Other than that, AI also lets you generate test scripts using different programming languages and frameworks.

• Test Data Generation: AI generates synthetic or real-world test data to improve test coverage for regression scenarios.
• Test Prioritization and Optimization: AI identifies critical regression test cases based on code changes, past failures, and risk analysis. It also optimizes test execution by prioritizing high-risk tests and running them in parallel.
• Self-Healing and Test Maintenance: AI self-heals test scripts by updating locators and test steps when the UI changes. Self-healing test automation also helps generate and maintain robust test scripts for regression testing.
• Defect Detection and Reporting: AI provides insights into test failures, trends, and defect predictions for regression cycles. It also detects UI differences across versions to prevent unintended design changes.

For example, cloud-based testing platforms like LambdaTest offer SmartUI. It is an AI-native test execution platform that allows you to visual UI testing across different desktop and mobile environments.

AI Tools for Regression Testing

Here is the list of the top AI testing tools to enhance your automated regression test process:

KaneAI

KaneAI, by LambdaTest, is a GenAI native testing agent for high-speed quality engineering teams. It enables you to create, manage, and debug regression tests using natural language, thereby simplifying the testing process and reducing the need for extensive coding expertise.

It also supports multi-language code export, converting automated tests into various programming languages and frameworks. This offers flexibility across different development environments.

KaneAI automatically generates and automates test steps based on high-level objectives, ensuring alignment with project goals. It also provides real-time root cause analysis and remediation suggestions for failing tests, streamlining the debugging process.

ACCELQ

ACCELQ is an AI-powered codeless automation testing platform for designing, automating, executing, and tracking regression test suites. It’s a unified automation testing platform capable of validating application layers that have regression-level maturity for microservices testing.

This cloud-based platform automates and manages AI-powered tests and automates the entire enterprise stack through desktop, API, mobile, and web. It ensures reliable test execution by using AI to offer long-term test automation.

Testim

Testim facilitates automated regression testing by verifying that the software application didn’t automatically regress to a previous state.

It’s a powerful AI-powered testing tool for automation testing designed to simplify and enhance the overall testing process. The platform leverages the power of machine learning to adapt and stabilize the testing process automatically.

Katalon Studio

Katalon Studio is one of the most powerful regression testing tools based on AI. It ensures scalability, improves productivity and enables low code practices. You can run regression tests on a diverse range of browsers, devices, and operating systems.

Using Appium and Selenium as its open-source test automation frameworks, Katalon Studio offers a specialized IDE to test API, desktop, web, and mobile applications.

Avo Assure

Avo Assure refers to a comprehensive AI-powered regression testing tool that uses various manual and automated testing methods to enable teams to identify and resolve bugs in their applications.

As a no-code automation testing solution, Avo Assure revolutionizes quality assurance, caters to non-technical users, and offers advanced analytics and reporting features.

How Does KaneAI Help With AI Regression Testing?

Let’s look at how you can use KaneAI to generate regression tests. For the demonstration, we will create web-based tests.

Note: Please ensure you have access to KaneAI. To get access, please contact sales.

1. Navigate to the LambdaTest dashboard and click the KaneAI option.



2. Click on the Create a Web Test button. It will open up the browser with a side panel available to write test steps.



3. Now, interact with the browser agent, and it will record the test steps based on your actions.



4. Click on the Finish Test button and then click the Save Test Case button.



You will now be redirected to the LambdaTest Test Manager, where you can manage your test cases. Additionally, you can access details such as Summary, Code, Runs, Issues, and Version History.



5. To generate your tests for the above test cases, click on the Code tab.

You’ll find multiple options to choose from based on your needs. You can generate new code in a different language or framework, run tests on HyperExecute, view and edit code in a built-in editor, or download the entire test suite with code files.

To get started, refer to this getting started guide on KaneAI.

Future of AI in Regression Testing

It won’t be an overstatement to say that AI in regression testing will become more autonomous, handling nearly every stage of testing, from test generation to execution and result analysis, with minimal human intervention.

Future advancements in test optimization will enhance efficiency by clustering and sequencing test cases based on dependencies, execution history, and impact, maximizing coverage with minimal resources.

AI-based autonomous testing agents will emerge, capable of generating test cases and scripts. These innovations will redefine regression testing, making it more adaptive, intelligent, and efficient.

Conclusion

AI is transforming regression testing by addressing the inefficiencies of traditional methods. From optimizing test execution and reducing maintenance overhead to enabling predictive defect detection, AI enhances speed, accuracy, and efficiency.

GenAI native test agents like KaneAI further streamline the process by intelligently prioritizing test cases, automating maintenance, and minimizing redundant test execution.

As AI continues to evolve, it will drive autonomous test generation, adaptive learning, and explainable decision-making, making regression testing more efficient and reliable.

Citations

Machine Learning Approach for Regression Testing: https://ijisae.org/index.php/IJISAE/article/view/5322

Veethee Dixit

I’m a Computer Science Engineer by degree and a passionate writer by choice. The credit for my profession as a web content writer goes to the knack for writing combined with a technical background.

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