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EuroSTAR Conference

Europe's Largest Software Testing Conference.

Keynote 1

The Jobs Not Taken

Dona Sarkar

09:00 - 10:00, Tuesday 16th June CET

“AI will take your job”
We keep hearing this but is this actually true?

The short answer: sometimes.
The better answer: that might be exactly what we want.

Building AI models — and building real products on top of them — turns out to be mostly about testing. Not just checking if software works, but validating behavior, bias, reliability, edge cases, and trust at scale. In other words, quality has moved from the end of the pipeline to the center of everything ALLL the way from the time you decide to do an AI project!

In this keynote, we’ll cut through the hype to look at what’s actually happening in AI today — not science fiction, not nonsense promises, but the real systems being shipped into production. We’ll explore how AI is fundamentally changing what “software quality” means, and why testers and quality engineers are uniquely positioned to lead this shift.

You’ll see practical ways testers can start building AI skills right now and apply them directly to current projects — even if you’ve never trained a model before. We’ll also talk honestly about which testing tasks AI should take over, and which new responsibilities are emerging in their place.

Most importantly, this talk challenges testers to stop reacting to the future and start designing it — becoming the role models who define what quality, trust, and accountability look like in an AI-driven world.

AI may take your testing job.

But you’ll have a MUCH better one instead.

“AI will take your job” — random tech CEOs, every day.

Is this true?

It is true in some cases and we actually DO want this. Did you know that building AI models and then building products using those models is mostly…testing?

In this keynote, you will learn:
-What’s the latest with AI today
-What does this have to do with software quality
-How testers and quality engineers can build up their AI-skills and use AI for their current projects
-How testers can figure out what their jobs will be in 5 years…and be the role models to lead us there

What you will learn

  1. What does this have to do with software quality
  2. How testers and quality engineers can build up their AI-skills and use AI for their current projects
  3. How testers can figure out what their jobs will be in 5 years…and be the role models to lead us there

Session Details

  • Introductory
  • 45 minutes
  • Includes 15 mins Q&A
  • Implementing/integrating AI tools
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Check out this video from Dona Sarkar to hear more about their talk on The Jobs Not Taken.

We look forward to welcoming you to EuroSTAR 2026.

Session Speakers

Dona Sarkar

Microsoft, USA

Dona believes that you are one experiment away from being your most powerful self at work. And yes, in life!

Currently at her day job, she’s running 100 experiments as the Chief Troublemaker of the Microsoft AI and Copilot Extensibility Program. Her goal is that people all over the world can use Microsoft’s AI and Copilot programs to reason over their OWN data and truly make AI useful for their business.

Dona’s also a keynote speaker (fave audience is corporate leaders like YOU), a multi-published author (it turns out fiction writing is useful in software!),  the owner of the ethical luxury fashion brand called Prima Dona Studios and she has recently become a wine bar co-owner and is studying to be a sommelier.

A few years ago, she was named one of Fast Company’s 100 Most Productive People and Cosmopolitan magazine’s Businessperson of the Year for her multi-faceted (aka weird) life.  And yes, she is always ready to get on a plane and come see YOU.

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