Overview:

As a software QA expert with over 20 years of experience, I’ve witnessed the ebb and flow of demand for quality assurance across decades of technological evolution. Today, in 2025, I reflect on a critical question:

What is happening to the Software QA market in 2025?

IMHO, The answer lies in understanding the elastic nature of software quality demand and how it shifts with the tides of innovation, experimentation, and consolidation.

The Elasticity of Software Quality Demand

Software quality demand isn’t static; it stretches and contracts based on the broader goals of development teams and market needs. Quality often takes a backseat during rapid experimentation, like the one we’re experiencing from the end of 2023 to mid-2025. The focus shifts to speed and market fit, validating whether a solution resonates with users rather than perfecting its flawless functionality.

In contrast, during times of consolidation, when products need to scale and endure, quality becomes paramount. Development teams prioritise solutions refactoring and building robust, reliable solutions built to last, driving a surge in demand for QA expertise.

This elasticity has shaped the QA demand landscape, especially over the past two decades, and it continues to define its trajectory today.

A Brief History: From Experimentation to QA’s Golden Age

To understand where we stand in 2025, let’s look back. From 2000 to 2010, after the dot-com bubble burst, internet demand fueled a rush to build websites and web applications. Public administrations and businesses raced to digitise, prioritising new solutions over polished execution. Quality was an afterthought; the mantra was clear: solve problems digitally and do it fast.

Then came the 2010s—the QA decade. Those hurriedly built solutions from the previous decade began to buckle under the weight of technical debt and maintenance. Companies realised that creating the right thing wasn’t all; it had to be built right. Thus, software quality practices matured, and test automation emerged as the cornerstone of this era. Therefore, new tools flooded the market, and demand for skilled testers and automation experts soared. Organisations that lagged in adopting these trends struggled to find talent, underscoring QA’s newfound prominence.

The AI Explosion and the Return to Experimentation

Fast-forward to 2022-2025, when AI burst onto the scene, flipping the script again. We entered a new phase of high experimentation, reminiscent of the early internet days. Today, in 2025, the focus is on pushing AI-driven solutions to market quickly to test their viability. Quality assurance has shifted to a minimalist role, ensuring basic functionality and security just enough to launch and gather real-world feedback. The demand for deep QA expertise has softened as speed trumps perfection.

Yet, current trends suggest QA is evolving to keep pace with this rapid development. Market projections, such as those in the Software Quality Assurance Market Size, Outlook & Analysis 2025-2033, indicate a growing demand for QA, driven by the need for reliable software amid digital transformation. Automation tools are racing to integrate AI features, promising cost-cutting efficiencies and faster testing cycles. However, these enhancements are more about staying afloat with market hype than delivering ultimate value for testing activities. While adding AI features to the toolset is the right move during this experimentation phase and the only viable path, I suspect these tools are still far from understanding where AI solutions will stabilise or how we’ll need to validate them. I’d caution against building long-term, large-scale testing solutions with them as their capabilities fluctuate.

I assume that the current experimentation phase won’t be as long. At most, it will likely last 5 years or less as AI technologies mature and find their footing. Unlike the 2000s, this cycle will be accelerated. AI doesn’t just speed up development; it also enhances business experimentation capabilities, compressing the timeline from innovation to consolidation.

The Future: A QA Renaissance on the Horizon

Once this experimental dust settles, likely between 2027 and 2030, the demand for software quality will surge again. As AI-based solutions stabilise and scale, businesses need robust systems to withstand mid to long-term challenges.

Yet, this QA resurgence won’t precisely mirror the 2010s. AI’s influence will evolve and shape the tools, techniques, and specialisations. Roles will demand a blend of traditional testing sense and new skills, like leveraging AI-driven testing tools or validating complex, adaptive systems.

What won’t change is the value of testers who can think beyond code & AI. They are the ones who can quickly spot issues, frictions, and imperfections in the organisational processes and the SDLC. They are the ones who can clearly communicate efficiently to describe a problem and a potential solution. QA professionals who quickly build verification frameworks, challenge solution boundaries, scrutinise business requirements, ask the right questions, and uncover hidden flaws will remain in high demand. The QA market may not return to its pre-2020 state, but the need for sharp, adaptable QA minds will survive.

Advice for QA Experts in 2025

So, where does this leave QA professionals today? My advice is twofold. First, embrace AI tools, experiment with them, master them, and use them to enhance your craft. Articles like The quickly evolving role of QA highlight how QA remains essential even in fast-paced environments, adapting to ensure quality doesn’t falter amid speed. Yet, from my 20 years of experience, I’ve often seen QA relegated to the end of the pipeline, or worse, neglected, when market pressure demands rapid delivery. This reality underscores the need to stay proactive with tools and trends, ensuring QA’s voice isn’t lost in the rush.

Second, keep your core tester skills razor-sharp. Evaluating requirements with the full business scope, spotting inconsistencies in the organisation’s processes and technologies, formulating challenging questions, and making intelligent assumptions are timeless abilities no tool can fully replace, at least not at the lower cost of human intuition. These skills will be your lifeline when the QA tide rises again.

Closing Thoughts: Riding the Waves of Change

The software QA market demand in 2025 is familiar yet distinct. We’re on the track of experimentation, where quality demand is low but not absent. History tells us this is temporary, as businesses must capitalise on their investments sooner rather than later. We are at the precursor to a wave of consolidation that will elevate QA once more. By understanding this elastic cycle and preparing for its next peak, QA experts can position themselves to survive and thrive. The question isn’t whether demand will return; it’s how we’ll meet it when it does.