Software testing is a growing global market shaped by automation, quality engineering, and artificial intelligence. The figures below cover market size, UK jobs and salaries, testing practices, automation coverage, skills, and AI adoption. Measurement periods differ by source, so each statistic is kept with its stated year or survey period.
Contents
- Software testing market size
- UK testing jobs and salaries
- QA practices and testing methods
- Automation coverage and release decisions
- Skills testers need
- AI adoption and automation outcomes
Software testing market size
The global software testing market was valued at £37 billion in 2022, according to the KPMG Software Testing – Market and Insights Report. KPMG projected a 5% compound annual growth rate from 2023 to 2032. This is a market forecast, not a measured result for every year in that period.
Test automation is forecast to expand faster than the wider testing market. KPMG projected the global test automation market to reach £45.6 billion in 2028, with an 18.5% CAGR from 2022 to 2028. The difference between the broader market growth rate and the automation forecast points to a strong shift toward repeatable, tool-assisted testing.
Application testing represented about 55% of the global software testing market in 2022. KPMG expected application testing to exceed £40 billion by 2032. The source’s estimate concerns the application-testing segment, while the £37 billion figure describes the entire global software testing market in 2022; they should not be treated as directly comparable snapshots.
The banking, financial services, and insurance sector was another major segment. Software testing services for BFSI accounted for more than 25% of the market in 2022, and KPMG forecast that BFSI testing services would exceed £16 billion by 2032. These are sector-specific market estimates rather than measures of the number of testing professionals.
Market indicators at a glance
| Indicator | Figure | Period or forecast window |
|---|---|---|
| Global software testing market | £37 billion | 2022 |
| Global software testing market CAGR | 5% | 2023–2032 forecast |
| Global test automation market | £45.6 billion | 2028 forecast |
| Test automation CAGR | 18.5% | 2022–2028 forecast |
| Application testing share | About 55% | 2022 |
| BFSI testing services share | More than 25% | 2022 |
UK testing jobs and salaries
The KPMG report placed the UK software testing market at £1.1 billion in 2023. It reported a 4.2% CAGR for the UK market from 2018 to 2023. The UK figures provide a country-level view of the wider market estimates above, but use a different geography and measurement period.
Demand for testing roles was also visible in permanent job advertisements. In the six months to 8 January 2023, 4,881 permanent UK jobs cited software testing, compared with 3,182 such jobs in 2022. Software testing roles represented 4.5% of all permanent UK jobs advertised in the measured period, compared with 2.6% in 2022. KPMG described the share as almost 5% and reported that it was up 100% versus 2022.
Salary figures in the same report were medians for advertised UK software testing roles. The median annual salary was £55,000, up from £53,112 in 2022, with a median year-on-year change of 3.5%. Outside London, the median was £50,000, compared with £45,000 in 2022.
These employment statistics describe advertisements and advertised salary medians. They do not show total employment, the number of people entering testing, or the pay of every tester in the UK.
QA practices and testing methods
Katalon’s State of Software Quality Report 2024 included more than 3,800 quality engineers and 10 or more in-depth industry expert interviews. Respondents rated automated integration and system testing as an effective quality-assurance practice at 69%. Automated unit testing and behavior-driven development each received a 66% effectiveness rating.
The report also recorded changes in reported quality challenges. In 2024, 48% cited lack of time to ensure quality, compared with 39% in both 2022 and 2023. Applying test automation was cited by 34%, compared with 36% in 2022 and 33% in 2023. Frequent requirements changes were cited by 34% in 2024, compared with 46% in 2022 and 21% in 2023.
Lack of experienced or skilled resources was cited by 34% in 2024, compared with 35% in 2022 and 19% in 2023. Lack of mature tools or technology was cited by 24% in 2024, up from 20% in both 2022 and 2023. Because these are survey responses, the figures indicate perceived challenges rather than independently measured defect or delivery rates.
PractiTest’s State of Testing 2024 survey found that 92% of teams used Agile or Agile-like methods. DevOps was used by 45%, behavior-driven development by 26%, and test-driven development by 23%. Waterfall or waterfall-like methods were reported by 21%, while 12% used their own unique model or principles. These categories can overlap, so they should not be added as a single distribution.
Automation coverage and release decisions
PractiTest’s 2024 survey suggests that automation generally supplements manual testing rather than eliminating it. Only 2% said automation had replaced all manual testing efforts. Another 19% said it had replaced about 75% or more, 30% said about 50%, and 22% said about 25% or less. Meanwhile, 18% said automation had replaced none of their manual testing efforts, and 9% said they did not have automation.
Confidence with automation scripting remained uneven: 42% of respondents said they did not feel comfortable writing automation scripts. At the same time, testing teams were involved in release decisions for most respondents. Eighty-one percent said testing teams had a say in release readiness, 13% said they did not, and 6% did not know.
| Reported automation result | Share of respondents |
|---|---|
| Replaced all manual testing | 2% |
| Replaced about 75% or more | 19% |
| Replaced about 50% | 30% |
| Replaced about 25% or less | 22% |
| Replaced none | 18% |
| Did not have automation | 9% |
The survey also shows why automation coverage is not the same as testing maturity. Automation may cover a portion of repetitive work while testers continue exploratory, functional, integration, usability, and risk-based activities. The supplied figures quantify reported replacement levels, but do not define the test scope behind each respondent’s estimate.
Skills testers need
Communication skills were among the most frequently selected capabilities in PractiTest’s 2024 survey: 59% ranked them among the top skills testers need. Functional testing automation and scripting followed at 47%, while test automation patterns, principles, and practices reached 46%. API testing was selected by 41%.
Agile methodologies were selected by 32%, programming skills by 31%, and test or experiment design by 30%. Performance and load testing and machine learning testing or AI each reached 21%. Web technologies and testing reached 20%, while mobile technologies and testing reached 17%.
Other technical and supporting capabilities appeared at lower shares. Security testing was selected by 16%, data analysis by 15%, coaching or training by 13%, and customer-facing skills by 12%. Microservices testing reached 11%, operations skills 10%, and enterprise software and process testing 8%.
Big data testing was selected by 6%, IoT testing by 5%, and business, marketing, and sales skills by 4%. Embedded systems and testing also reached 4%; 4% selected another skill area, and 2% selected none of the listed areas. These percentages represent selections in a survey and may overlap because respondents could identify multiple skills.
AI adoption and automation outcomes
AI was a prominent objective in Katalon’s 2024 report. Forty-seven percent of participants aimed to integrate AI into QA processes as their main objective. Among managers and senior management, 58% selected AI integration into QA as the key coming-year goal. AI-generated test cases for manual testing were the most anticipated AI application, selected by 52%.
The OpenText World Quality Report 2024 reported that 68% of organizations were either actively using generative AI or had roadmaps after pilot implementations. That total consisted of 34% actively using Gen AI and another 34% with roadmaps following successful pilots. Seventy-two percent reported faster automation processes after Gen AI integration.
OpenText also reported that 82% of organizations had dedicated learning pathways for quality-engineering teams, while 50% actively tracked the effectiveness of those programs. Barriers remained substantial: 57% identified a lack of comprehensive test-automation strategies, and 64% identified reliance on legacy systems.
The same report measured sustainability practices. Twenty-five percent were measuring the environmental impact of overall IT development, 44% were tracking the environmental impact of testing activities, and 34% were implementing efficient Quality Engineering practices to drive sustainability.
Tricentis and Techstrong surveyed more than 500 DevOps professionals in 2024 in AI-augmented DevOps: Trends Shaping the Future. Sixty percent said AI reduced developer-team inefficiency, 54% said it helped reduce the skills gap, 47% said it helped reduce costs, and 42% said it improved software quality. Sixty percent said developer productivity increased because of AI, while 42% said AI made them more productive in testing and QA. Testing was ranked the most valuable AI investment area by 60% of DevOps practitioners, although 51% said substantial human verification was still required.
Tricentis’ Global Survey 2024 reported AI use for test planning or deciding what to test at 47.5% of teams, test-case generation at 44%, and test-result analysis at 32%. Teams said AI could save more than 40 hours per month on average. In Tricentis’ 2022 study, nearly 70% rated AI-augmented testing as extremely or very valuable, and 65% said it was especially suited to functional testing. The 2022 findings are historical survey results and should not be read as current adoption measurements.