Quality Coaching in Modern Testing: Emna Ayadi on GenAI, Human Judgment, and Team Ownership
Emna Ayadi
Sogeti, Netherlands
In this episode of the EuroSTAR Community Podcast, Emna Ayadi shares her perspective on quality coaching and how the role of testers is evolving in agile and DevOps environments. She explains why quality must be a collective responsibility from the earliest stages of development and how quality coaching supports teams during their transition to quality engineering. The conversation also explores the realistic use of GenAI in testing and coaching, highlighting both its potential to boost productivity and the importance of maintaining critical thinking, human interaction, and accountability.
Three key takeaways
- Quality is owned by the whole team, not just testers
Emna reframes testing as an ongoing activity that starts before coding begins, focusing on preventing issues early rather than only finding bugs at the end. - GenAI can support quality coaching, but never replace human judgment
Used thoughtfully, GenAI can accelerate repetitive tasks and generate insights, but it requires well‑crafted prompts, continuous critique, and a strong human mindset to manage risks and ensure meaningful results. - Human interaction remains essential in learning and coaching
Workshops, tutorials, and in‑person discussions create psychological safety, encourage participation, and reveal nuances—such as hesitation or confusion; that AI tools cannot reliably detect.
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About Me!
Emna is a passionate tester from Tunisia, who started her career in IT in 2015. She got the chance to work on multinational projects combined between testing and quality coaching roles. Currently, she works at Sogeti France.
She is an international speaker and workshop facilitator. She has spoken at several testing and agile conferences. She has contributed to 2 books, one as a co-author and one as translator.