While 95% of companies face AI setbacks, a new survey reveals the root cause is a breakdown in the quality practices that once enabled safe, high-velocity development.
SAN FRANCISCO, CA / ACCESS Newswire / September 17, 2025 / The race to deploy AI has dangerously decoupled development speed from software quality, leading to a near-universal rate of project setbacks across the tech industry. This is the central finding of a new report, "The 2025 Software Testing Vibe Check: Agentic AI Edition," from Sauce Labs, the leading platform for continuous quality.
The report, based on a survey conducted by Wakefield Research, argues that the core principles of the DevOps movement-which successfully bonded speed and quality together over the last decade-have been diminished in the AI gold rush. This has created a capability gap, with the survey revealing that 82% of companies lack the appropriately skilled testers or adequate tools to manage their AI initiatives safely.
"For a decade, the best tech companies proved you could move fast and be stable," said Prince Kohli, CEO at Sauce Labs. "But now we're seeing a potentially dangerous decoupling of speed from quality. This survey reveals a deep chasm between the few companies equipped to manage AI and the many who are unprepared."
Set amongst the survey data lies a sobering statistic: Most professionals (61%) report their own leadership doesn't understand the fundamentals of software testing. This leadership blind spot results in teams being tasked with implementing powerful AI without proper support, creating a culture where employees are set up to fail. Consequently, 60% of respondents believe employees will take the blame for AI's mistakes.
Other Key Findings from ‘The Great Decoupling' Report:
• A Universal Toll: The capability gap is exacting a heavy price. A near-universal 95% of companies have experienced setbacks from their AI initiatives, a consequence of deploying complex technology without the right support structures in place.
• An Acceleration into the Gap: Despite these setbacks, nearly half of companies (48%) are "doubling down" on their AI investments. This high-stakes gamble suggests market pressure is forcing them to accelerate even when they lack the internal capability to do so safely, widening the chasm between ambition and reality.
• A Reality Distortion Field: The industry is operating with an optimistic timeline that ignores the quality gap. While 72% believe in full autonomous testing by 2027, 60% of companies haven't even established the basic accuracy benchmarks needed to measure success.
• The Innovator's Dilemma: The industry is split on how to proceed. While nearly half (47%) have slowed or paused AI initiatives due to poor results, a nearly equal number (48%) are "doubling down," accelerating into the problem in a high-stakes bet that they can fix quality issues mid-flight.
"The next great challenge isn't building more powerful AI; it's building the quality frameworks to control it," Kohli added. "The goal is to re-couple speed and quality for the AI era. You need a platform that provides a safety net to let your developers innovate at full speed - and even help them accelerate - without fear of breaking everything."
For a deeper analysis, download the complete report here: http://www.saucelabs.com/resources/report/agentic-ai-survey-in-software-testing
The survey was conducted by Wakefield Research among 400 US-based tech professionals, including executives and software engineers, in June 2025.
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About Sauce Labs
Sauce Labs is the leading platform for continuous quality, trusted by the world's top enterprises - like Walmart, Bank of America, and Indeed. More than 8 billion tests have been run on the Sauce Labs platform, and over 300,000 users depend on Sauce Labs to help them quickly deliver the highest quality software experiences. Our unified platform powers continuous quality across the SDLC - using AI-driven analytics to identify key quality signals from development through production. With over a decade of expertise and deep roots in the Selenium and Appium open-source communities, Sauce Labs helps teams test on thousands of different devices, browsers, and operating systems - anywhere, any time, and at any scale. For more information, please visit saucelabs.com.
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SOURCE: Sauce Labs
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