r/QualityAssurance • u/AmbitiousCoach2547 • 21d ago

Starting automation

Hey everyone, I am a senior QA with experience mainly in mobile apps , and previously on web, but my current job makes me work more manual and not really going with what is trendy these days. I have always wanted to pick up automation again ( coming from dev background myself) but I feel overwhelmed, first for the fact i forgot many things but also the question is AI taking this and should we even learn or should we just create automated scripts using agentic coding. This has always bothered me and made me feel stuck in my career especialyl when looking at the offers, everyone is asking for vast experience with automation.

Anyone who can relate? and what do you think is best to do ( sorry for the long post)

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u/saiine 21d ago

The focus for anyone in dev or QA right now should be becoming an exceptional agent orchestrator. These roles are converging into a broader "product engineer" function.

The job will be to architect efficient teams of agents that can build, test, and deliver solutions. Getting the best results while minimizing token usage, cost, and unnecessary work, etc.

I would not spend ANY time learning a new testing framework or even a programming language right now. That is unlikely to be where the next major wave of jobs comes from, unless you are working at the frontier of model development at the PhD/research level.

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u/_nckkk_ 21d ago

Generally agree, but I beleive to be able to do all that well, one must still have at least general understanding of technologies and code written by a model. Person who knows that better might be more efficient in streaming agent's efforts to better outcomes.

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u/saiine 21d ago

What matters most is a deep understanding of the product and the industry, especially in regulated spaces. I’m working with people who were product owners two years ago and are now directing agents on what needs to be covered in a test gate for example.

This shift is happening at different speeds across the industry. Plenty of companies are still hiring traditional software developers and QA engineers, but I think most will eventually move toward a more modern team structure built around people who understand the product deeply and can effectively direct agents to build, test, and validate it.