Two-thirds of Irish organisations shipping untested code as AI speeds up development process
Two-thirds (66%) of Irish organisations are shipping untested code – higher than the 60% global average, with many citing leadership pressure to prioritise speed and the volume of AI-generated code as key drivers. As a result almost half of Irish organisations lose between €430,000 and €4.3 million annually due to poor software quality, with security, compliance failures and technical debt among the biggest contributors.
The findings come from a survey of more than 2,500 CEOs, CIOs, CTOs, engineering leaders, QA professionals and developers across six countries by software testing company Tricentis.
In Ireland the public sector (83%) reported the highest rate. This was followed by financial services (81%), and retail (71%) – well above global averages of 64% and 63% respectively.
A significant AI trust gap was also found between executives and practitioners: Almost three-quarters of Irish C-level executives (71%) reported high confidence in AI-driven systems and tools, compared to just 46% of QA and DevOps professionals.
One third of Irish organisations (33%) have fully implemented AI internally, but of those organisations, just under half (48%) report that their AI tools and processes regularly change. Over one-third of teams (36%) cited this tool complexity and sprawl as a key barrier to achieving continuous software quality at scale. Other top barriers included skills gaps (37%), code volume increasing faster than they can manage (33%), and budget constraints (32%).
Despite widespread confidence in agentic AI, many organisations continue to struggle with tool sprawl, security concerns and skills shortages. Just over 80% of Irish organisations said they trusted agentic AI to make release decisions, and 77% said they are prepared to operationalise and govern AI agents at scale. Furthermore many continued to struggle with untested code (66%), tool sprawl (26%), security concerns (25%) and skills gaps (27%).
“Accelerating business transformation initiatives is one of the top priorities for today’s C-suite and AI has the potential to help software development teams move faster than ever before,” said Kevin Thompson, CEO of Tricentis.
“However, with increased speed comes increased risk. When software quality processes fail to keep pace with development speed, organisations often respond by taking shortcuts that can materially degrade or reduce confidence. Our research highlights the growing pressure teams are facing to balance speed, quality and control as software development accelerates.
“As risks like financial performance and customer trust become more visible and measurable, software quality can no longer be treated as just an engineering concern. It must become a boardroom imperative.”
Thompson continued: “Many organisations are still relying on quality processes that weren’t designed for software development in the AI era. As development accelerates, leaders need clearer visibility into software quality risk and stronger alignment between engineering, QA and the broader business. The organisations that succeed will be the ones that can scale speed and control together.”
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