September 2026 Summaries

BrowserStack profiles Jesper Ottosen, a test strategy advisor and Principal Cybersecurity Consultant at NNIT with more than 20 years of experience leading testing in large IT transformation, regulatory compliance, and security-focused programs. A longstanding Ministry of Testing contributor, author of three books, and prolific blogger, he emphasizes designing testing strategies around stakeholder needs, delivery cadence, and the underlying business “why” rather than applying every available test type or pursuing tools for their own sake. Ottosen highlights GRC engineering as a promising DevSecOps practice that automates verification of security and government-mandated requirements, and argues that AI will increase the need for critical thinking, validation, and evaluation even as it reduces manual test-case creation. He views testing primarily as a people-centered discipline shaped by stakeholder risk perceptions, collaboration, mentorship, and careful engagement with participants, while continuing to support emerging quality professionals through writing, speaking, and mentoring.

BrowserStack’s Icons of Quality series recognizes Debbie O’Brien for her contributions to web development, testing, artificial intelligence, and developer education, including her advocacy for Playwright, Playwright MCP, and AI agents. A Google Developer Expert with experience in frontend architecture and technical program management at Microsoft, O’Brien emphasizes that AI is becoming essential to testing, particularly for helping verify work, generate effective tests, and improve testing agents over time. She advises new testers to develop broad AI proficiency alongside traditional testing skills, including learning how to direct agents and assess the quality of their output. O’Brien also uses AI bots to identify, summarize, and prioritize learning resources amid rapid technological change, while reflecting that AI reduces barriers for newcomers even though her own early career benefited from learning through difficult challenges. Outside technology, she values sports and cycling, describing time outdoors in Mallorca as beneficial for creativity and reflection.

BrowserStack’s 11th AI x QA Leadership Summit will be held virtually and free of charge on September 23, 2026, from 8:30 to 11:30 PM IST, focusing on how quality engineering teams can adopt AI responsibly and effectively. Under the theme “Building the AI-Native QA Engine,” the event will offer separate tracks for QA leaders addressing AI strategy, governance, metrics, and oversight, and for practitioners developing AI-assisted testing skills through demonstrations and workshops. The summit will bring together QA leaders, engineers, AI specialists, and enterprise practitioners to discuss decisions around automation, human supervision, measuring AI’s impact, and changing QA roles, with the full speaker agenda to be announced.

BrowserStack profiles Keith Klain, Director of Quality Engineering at KPMG UK, as a software-quality leader specializing in AI assurance, quality engineering, and operational risk, with experience leading major testing transformations for organizations including Barclays and Citigroup. Klain describes his work on strategic enterprise, infrastructure, and merger-integration programs as centered on identifying risk and delivering timely, useful information, while emphasizing the value of collaboration with the global testing community. He argues that systems thinking, critical thinking, risk management, and the ability to translate technology risk into business terms are increasingly important, particularly as organizations assess AI-enabled systems for safety, reliability, fitness for purpose, and trustworthy evidence. Although skeptical of much of the current “AI in testing” activity, he expects the field to change rapidly and advises new testers to study the profession’s history and diverse approaches rather than rely solely on certifications or vendor promises. Klain also characterizes software quality and risk as fundamentally people problems requiring effective management and communication alongside technical skill, and notes his interest in learning French, spending time with his family, hiking, traveling, and attending concerts.

BrowserStack profiles Richard Bradshaw, known as FriendlyTester, a Senior Architect in Quality Engineering at Slalom Build and former CEO of the Ministry of Testing, recognizing his influence on software testing through community leadership, thought leadership, and advocacy for human-centered automation. Bradshaw views complex problem-solving as the core of engineering and considers AI agents both promising and challenging because their probabilistic behavior requires broader quality practices such as evaluations, telemetry, human review, statistical measures, and production feedback. He argues that AI will automate much routine testing work, but critical thinking, risk assessment, experimentation, and judgment will remain essential skills in increasingly hybrid engineering and quality roles. He advises newcomers to develop programming, architecture, observability, monitoring, and AI literacy while retaining curiosity and the ability to ask valuable questions. Bradshaw also emphasizes learning through hands-on experimentation and professional communities, describing testing primarily as gathering and validating information to support informed business decisions rather than simply finding bugs or accumulating automated checks.