IT development teams have accelerated their delivery of new software products through the wider adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) over the past year, but many organizations are struggling to maintain confidence in software quality as increasing scale and complexity introduce new risks, according to a study from Texas software firm Tricentis.“Accelerating business transformation initiatives is one of the top priorities for today’s C-suite and AI has the potential to help software development teams move faster than ever before,” said Kevin Thompson, CEO of Tricentis. “However, with increased speed comes increased risk. When software quality processes fail to keep pace with development speed, organizations often respond by taking shortcuts that materially degrade or reduce confidence. Our research highlights the growing pressure teams are facing to balance speed, quality, and control as software development accelerates.”The report found that 6 in 10 organizations in 2026 report deploying untested code, which is consistent with the 63% reported last year. However, organizations in 2025 largely attributed this to accidental quality slips (40%). Now, organizations admit that they are knowingly deploying untested code, largely driven by leadership pressure to prioritize speed over quality (32%), and the sheer volume of AI-generated code becoming too overwhelming for teams to test fully (30%).One reason for that behavior is a gap between executive optimism and operational realities; what’s considered AI progress in the boardroom may feel more like operational friction to software teams. More than four in five CEOs (81%) report high confidence in AI-driven systems and tools, compared to…
