Software testing platform Tricentis have released the findings of its global 2025 Quality Transformation Report, with the inaugural survey exposing the growing challenges in delivering quality software, as well as dissonance among today’s technology leaders and professionals around how to prioritise speed, quality, and cost in an AI-driven economy.

The research found that software quality falters amid competing pressures.

As organisations chase productivity gains from generative AI, teams are overwhelmingly focused on improving delivery speed (45%) over enhancing software quality (13%).

As a result, 66% of global organisations are at significant risk of software outages in the next year, with 63% shipping code without fully testing it.

The pressure to shorten release cycles (46%) and accidental deployments of untested code (40%) are driving widespread quality compromises, with poor software quality increasing technical debt, maintenance costs, customer turnover, security breaches and compliance failures.

In the UK, the situation is worse, with 73% admitting to pushing untested code live – 12% more than US counterparts – and 44% reporting untested code accidentally slipping through. A vast majority of UK organisations (72%) still delay software releases due to a lack of confidence in test coverage, exposing persistent gaps in quality assurance.

The Quality Transformation Report is based on a survey of over 2,700 DevOps and quality assurance leaders, and software developers worldwide. Respondents included CIOs, CTOs, and VPs of engineering from industries including the public sector, energy and utilities, manufacturing and financial services.

The manufacturing and public sectors face the greatest outage exposure globally (69%), while in the UK, the energy and utility sectors are most at risk (69%), with financial services close behind (68%).

Leadership disconnect and poor quality hampering progress

Quality gaps in software are hitting organisations hard, with nearly half (42%) of global firms estimating annual losses of over $1 million (£750,000) due to poor software quality.

The financial services sector is particularly affected, both globally and in the UK, where energy and utilities firms also report significant losses.

However, the issue isn’t purely technical – misalignment within organisations is proving a major obstacle.

Globally, poor communication between development and QA teams (33%) and a disconnect between leadership and software teams (28%) are cited as top barriers to progress.

In the UK, the race to release software quickly tops the list (32%), suggesting a culture of urgency is compromising quality.

Amid these challenges, AI is emerging as a promising solution. Over four in five organisations (82%) are enthusiastic about the potential of AI agents to take over repetitive tasks, enabling developers to focus on more strategic work.

Confidence in AI’s capabilities is rising too: nine in ten CIOs, CTOs, and software delivery teams now trust AI to make autonomous release decisions. Nearly 90% say they can already quantify the return on investment from generative AI in their development processes.

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Further, 99.89% of respondents see autonomous testing as a useful tool – particularly for boosting software speed and quality, analysing results, and maintaining test cases – marking a strong shift toward AI-driven delivery at scale.

“Recent software outages due to unchecked or untested code changes showcase just how critical high-quality software is to the wider organisational ecosystem, and having the right balance of quality and speed to serve developing technological needs is paramount,” said Kevin Thompson, chief executive officer, Tricentis.

“As AI continues to evolve, we believe tech leaders and practitioners need to define what quality means for their organisation to strike the right balance between quality, speed, and cost, while implementing comprehensive testing strategies to deliver better business outcomes.”