SmartBear Named a Challenger in the First-Ever Gartner® Magic Quadrant™ for AI-Augmented Software Testing Tools
For decades, testing was about ensuring predictable outcomes in mostly static environments. Today, AI-driven applications are dynamic, adaptive, and sometimes unpredictable. That raises the stakes for quality engineering.
When Gartner rolls out a brand-new Magic Quadrant, it’s a big deal to those of us in the software industry. We believe it signifies a new, innovative tech has officially arrived on the global stage. With the first-ever Magic Quadrant for AI-Augmented Software Testing Tools, we feel this report shines a spotlight on how AI is reshaping the way teams deliver faster, smarter, and higher-quality software.
At SmartBear, being named a Challenger in this first-ever Magic Quadrant is not just placement on a chart. In our opinion, this is a milestone reflecting the momentum of our portfolio, the investments we’ve made in AI, and our commitment to helping development and testing teams deliver software with confidence in an AI-driven future.
Let’s break it down
SmartBear’s testing products support all types of testing teams and their needs: Reflect for AI-first cloud-based test automation, TestComplete for desktop test automation, QMetry for independent test management, Zephyr for Jira-native test management, and ReadyAPI for API testing.
The Gartner report reviews our solutions and identifies SmartBear’s strengths. We believe they are:
- Flexible and transparent pricing – we offer a variety of solutions for cloud and on-premises customers that support customers of all sizes and industries
- Overall viability – we have a broad product portfolio and sustained investment in AI to ensure our durability.
Our vision for the future of testing
Gartner determined we are a Challenger in the AI-augmented software testing tools space. We believe this placement signals that we have the right foundation to adapt to a rapidly shifting AI market.
For QA to thrive in this new environment will requires two things:
- Scalable, comprehensive testing: Whether it’s web, desktop, API, or mobile, testing must cover all layers of an application – and be adaptable as AI evolves.
- Accessible AI-augmented capabilities: Teams shouldn’t need to be AI experts to benefit from AI in testing. Our mission is to bring powerful, intuitive AI-driven features into the hands of every tester and developer
So how does this shape the direction of our testing products? It all comes down to ensuring that people at any level of AI-adoption have the means to deliver the highest quality outcomes for the apps they are testing. SmartBear’s AI makes this possible in a number of ways.
AI at SmartBear Today
We have long seen the potential AI has for software development and testing teams, leveraging computer vision technology to boost productivity for our customers. We launched new AI capabilities in spring of 2024, enhancing our existing features with GenAI to further speed up, automate, and improve software testing cycles. Here’s a snapshot of how they appear in our testing products:
- Overcome manual testing barriers and eliminate release bugs – using natural language to create and automate tests for a quick boost to coverage.
- Level up their mobile testing – with AI that enables users to create tests in natural language agnostic of framework and OS requirements
- Accelerate test case creation – converting requirements and user stories into test cases instantly, so teams can get to execution faster
- Optimize test suites – with features like flaky-test detection and customizable reporting to make it easy to spot and improve steps in your workflow
Looking Ahead…
We envision SmartBear’s AI will help teams achieve even greater levels of autonomy. Customers are already taking advantage of capabilities like our MCP server to remove adoption barriers and access our capabilities within their own environments, and we have even more in the works! Stay tuned for more exciting updates from SmartBear.
If you’re reading this, you’d probably be interested to learn more about what we’re doing with AI! Check out smartbear.com/ai.
In Closing
We believe being named a Challenger in this inaugural Magic Quadrant shows that our AI strategy is delivering results and affirms what customers have already been saying about SmartBear’s AI capabilities:
- “SmartBear’s Reflect completely transformed how I see front-end automation, It showed me that automating complex flows doesn’t have to involve heavy code or tedious maintenance. The mobile testing experience mirrors what I love about web automation – it’s intuitive, innovative, and powered by AI-driven prompts that genuinely change the game. For my company, where we aim to automate integrated flows across both web and mobile platforms, this tool aligns perfectly with our goals and pushes us a step closer to full end-to-end automation.” – Tommy Marín, QA Lead at Connect Assistance
- “With SmartBear’s Reflect, we have developed test automation scripts, which would have taken two years to develop, in eighteen weeks.” – Ayush Anand, DevOps & Quality Engineering Manager at TELUS
- “Since adopting SmartBear’s Reflect, we have no UI errors in production. Like, 0%. It’s like we can’t miss UI things. Any issues are caught in our staging environment. They don’t make it to production.” – Merom Cohen, Developer at Monday.com
- “I have only scratched the surface of the potential that SmartBear’s Zephyr can give us. The ability to watch a test recording back and fix issues on the fly not only helps in time saving but consistency in test coverage which can only lead to better releases, saving us money and time as we progress on our journey with Zephyr.” – Chris Lewis, Test Analyst at the RAC
AI is changing software development at breakneck speeds, which underscores the importance of scalable and reliable testing. We’re helping customers move forward with confidence – backed by scalable, future-ready testing solutions.
If you want to dive even deeper, you can access a complimentary copy of the Gartner report through this page.
Disclaimer
Gartner, Magic Quadrant for AI-Augmented Software Testing Tools , Joachim Herschmann, Sushant Singhal, Ross Power, C.A. Swan, 6 October 2025
GARTNER is a registered trademark and service mark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and internationally, and MAGIC QUADRANT is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates and are used herein with permission. All rights reserved.
Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in its research publications, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors with the highest ratings or other designation. Gartner research publications consist of the opinions of Gartner’s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. Gartner disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.
This graphic was published by Gartner, Inc. as part of a larger research document and should be evaluated in the context of the entire document. The Gartner document is available upon request from SmartBear.