SLASSCOM Quality Summit 2026 highlights QA’s pivotal role in shaping future of AI-driven innovation

SLASSCOM successfully concluded the SLASSCOM Quality Summit 2026, held under the theme “From Quality to Intelligence: QA’s Role in the AI Revolution.” The two-day virtual summit brought together global experts, technology leaders, and quality engineering professionals to explore the rapidly evolving role of Quality Assurance in an increasingly AI-driven world.

The summit underscored how Quality Assurance is moving beyond traditional testing functions to become a strategic discipline focused on trust, governance, intelligent automation, and ethical AI adoption. This year’s discussions strongly reflected the industry’s growing need for QA professionals to play a central role in enabling responsible, reliable, and scalable AI-powered innovation.

The event commenced with opening remarks from SLASSCOM Chairperson Shehani Senevirathne, who highlighted the importance of equipping the quality engineering community to navigate the next phase of transformation driven by artificial intelligence.

Day one featured a series of high-impact technical sessions. René van Veldhuijzen of Squerist delivered a session titled “Shift Left, Shift Right, Stay Centred: Closing the Loop on Continuous Quality,” emphasising modern quality engineering practices and the importance of embedding quality throughout the software development lifecycle.

Adding further depth to the discussion, 99x Test Automation Architect Ruwanthi Soysa presented “QA Strategies for Trustworthy AI Assisted Quality Engineering,” offering insights into building reliable AI-assisted testing frameworks with transparency and control. Meanwhile, Neelam Pal, Senior Test Automation Architect at Capgemini, addressed governance and ethics through her session “Governance, Compliance and Ethical AI Assurance,” highlighting the critical importance of accountability and compliance in AI-enabled systems.

A key highlight of the summit was the panel discussion “Human-in-the-Loop and The Evolving QA Workforce,” featuring industry leaders including Zone24x7 Software Engineering Head Dhaminda Siriwardena, IFS Next Generation Architecture Vice President Rifki Razick, and SoundHound AI Quality Assurance Director Harsha Navaratne, moderated by Pearson Lanka Senior Quality Assurance Engineer Yasassri Ratnayake. The panel explored how AI is reshaping workforce dynamics while reinforcing the continued importance of human expertise in quality engineering.

The second day continued with equally impactful sessions. QA Roots Founder Dr. Leonardo Lanni presented “Reverse Mutation Testing,” introducing innovative approaches to enhancing software reliability. This was followed by a leadership-focused session by Amazon Software Development Manager Dr. Chathuranga Manamendra titled “Operationalising AI in Software Delivery: A Leadership Playbook for Shared Quality, Speed, and Governance,” which explored the balance between innovation, governance, and delivery speed.

The summit concluded with an interactive virtual workshop on “Autonomous Testing,” led by 3Pillar Global Senior Quality Lead Manager Kailash Pathak, offering participants practical insights into emerging AI-driven testing methodologies.

The SLASSCOM Quality Summit 2026 successfully created a dynamic platform for knowledge exchange, collaboration, and forward-looking dialogue on the future of quality engineering. As AI adoption continues to accelerate across industries, the summit reinforced the critical message that QA professionals will remain central to ensuring trust, reliability, governance, and human-centred innovation in the evolving digital economy.