AI & Automation is everywhere. Test managers are disappearing. Yet expectations of quality are simultaneously rising and shrinking. In this environment, many testers feel their role is being reduced to automation and checklists and are left wondering where their real value now lies.

How Modern Testers Shape Quality Without Authority. This talk revisits Meta Testing: the discipline of testing the testing system itself. Rather than focusing only on executing tests, it explores how skilled testers improve quality by influencing risk decisions, shaping better testing practices, and elevating testing in organisations that believe quality is “handled by automation”. Testing is reframed not as a task or role, but as a craft, a mindset, and a leadership activity.

Attendees will leave with practical ways to stay relevant, visible, and impactful in fast‑moving software teams learning how to shape quality outcomes without formal authority, grow beyond “more automation”, and build the thinking and judgement skills that remain essential in modern, AI‑assisted delivery environments.