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Track Talk, T19

The Power of Mind: Why it Matters in the Age of AI !?

Ard Kramer

15:45 - 16:30 CEST, Tuesday 16th June

Working with AI has become a fact of life, but are you truly delivering good work with it?

Are you fully equipped to evaluate its outcomes, and that is exactly where we struggle. We find it hard to stay focused and too often trust the results blindly.

This is what you might call “the complacency trap of (AI) automation.” How do you avoid it? It requires strong mental capacities: focus, state of mind, and motivation. These are the same ingredients athletes rely on for top performance. What can you, as a tester, learn from that to work better with AI?

In my presentation, I will apply insights from sport psychology to raise awareness of these mental capacities. Sport psychology identifies four core capacities: concentration, self-confidence, intrinsic motivation, and arousal. They interact in complex ways and need to be balanced for peak performance.

The key question is how to influence them. When confidence and arousal are at the right level, motivation and concentration rise as well. This creates the conditions for flow, described as: “being completely involved in an activity for its own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies. Every action, movement, and thought follows inevitably from the previous one.”

To reach this (test) flow, four mental tools can be applied: goal setting, visualization, self-talk, and stress control. Each has a clear role in testing. Are you able to judge AI-generated test cases against your goals—and have you set the right goals?

Visualization prepares your mind to assess whether a created test strategy is relevant. Self-talk provides short cues that strengthen focus and belief in your skills when reviewing test results. Stress control helps you stay calm when a stakeholder is waiting beside you for quick answers.

After this presentation, you will better understand your mental capacities and know how to use these tools. This will help you work with AI in a trustworthy way while achieving a state of (test) flow.

What you will learn

  1. Strengthen your mental capacities: Develop focus, motivation, self-confidence, and arousal control to avoid the “complacency trap” when working with AI
  2. Apply mental tools in testing: Use goal setting, visualization, self-talk, and stress control to judge AI outputs more effectively and stay in control
  3. Work towards (test) flow: Balance your capacities to achieve a state of flow, where evaluating and applying AI becomes more natural, reliable, and effective

Session Details

  • Introductory
  • 45mins
  • Includes 15min Q&A
  • Efficiencies and new capabilities
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Check out this video from Ard Kramer to hear more about his talk on The power of mind: Why it matters in the age of AI !?

We look forward to welcoming you to EuroSTAR 2026.

Session Speakers

Ard Kramer

OrangeCrest, Netherlands

Ard is a software tester from the Netherlands working at OrangeCrest. He calls himself a Qualisopher: someone “who loves truth and wisdom and at the same time is decisive to improve people and their environment.” This perspective shapes his work in software testing and beyond.

As a former volleyball coach and current sport leader, Ard applies lessons from the court—focus, teamwork, and resilience—to quality and testing. His dream as a Qualisopher is to contribute to diverse projects in sports, culture, and IT, always seeking to learn, share, and create meaningful impact.

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