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Exploratory Testing With AI

5 min read
Qa

Qa

AI can suggest angles. You drive the session. Exploratory stays human-led.

Exploratory Testing With AI

TL;DR

  • Exploratory testing is unstructured, curiosity-driven. AI can't do it for you—but it can suggest angles, scenarios, and "have you tried X?"
  • Use AI as a brainstorming partner: "What could break here?" AI offers ideas; you pursue the ones that feel promising.
  • Session notes, bug patterns, and charters benefit from AI. Execution and judgment stay human.

Exploratory testing is where QA shines: no script, just "let me poke at this and see what happens." AI can't replace that. It can make it more focused.

How AI Helps Exploratory Testing

Charter design. "I'm exploring the checkout flow. What should I focus on?" AI suggests: payment edge cases, session expiry, cart persistence, error handling. You pick what's relevant.

Idea generation. Stuck? "What's a scenario we might have missed?" AI offers: race conditions, concurrent users, network failure mid-transaction. Some will be obvious; some will spark new paths.

Session notes. After a session, "Summarize my findings and suggest follow-up areas." AI drafts; you edit. Speeds reporting.

Pattern recall. "We've seen bugs like this before—what were they?" If you've logged past bugs, AI can search and suggest similar scenarios to re-test.

What Stays Human

Session direction. You decide where to go next. AI suggests; you choose. Exploration is intentional, not random.

Depth. AI might say "test error handling." You drill: which errors? Under what conditions? What does the user see? AI surfaces breadth; you add depth.

Judgment. "Is this a bug or by design?" AI doesn't know. You do—or you escalate.

Discovery. The best exploratory finds things you didn't plan for. AI can't plan the unplanned. You wander; AI supports.

Practical Workflow

  1. Before session: Prompt AI with the feature and charter. "I'm testing [X]. Give me 10 angles to explore." Use as a starting list, not a script.

  2. During session: When stuck, ask "what else could I try?" Use AI as a sparring partner. Don't let it dictate the path.

  3. After session: "Summarize: what I tested, what I found, what I'd explore next." AI drafts report; you verify accuracy.

Manual process. Repetitive tasks. Limited scale.

Click "With AI" to see the difference →

Quick Check

What remains human when AI automates more of this role?

Do This Next

  1. Run one exploratory session with AI as prep. Prompt: "I'm testing [feature]. What are 10 exploratory angles?" Use it to seed your charter. Compare: did AI suggest anything you wouldn't have thought of?
  2. Document your exploratory findings in a format AI can search: structured notes, tags, patterns. Build a corpus for future "we've seen this before" queries.