Insights from Innovations in Testing 2024

I (David Bailey, Head of Product at Aspeq) recently had the opportunity to attend the Innovations in Testing 2024 conference in Anaheim, Orange County, LA, organised by ATP Global. Spanning four days, this event brought together test publishers and showcased the remarkable evolution of AI within the industry. From a burgeoning technology with over half the sector still undecided, AI is starting to be embraced for content creation in the assessment industry, evidenced by demonstrations from at least four vendors.

The conference highlighted that AI's role is predominantly seen through the lens of Large Language Models (LLMs) like those developed by OpenAI. A compelling takeaway was the assertion that "you won't lose your job to AI, but to someone who masters it." Despite AI's advancements, the necessity for human oversight to prevent inaccuracies remains, though the duration of this requirement is up for debate.

Discussions underscored the importance of integrating AI into our workflows as a step towards enhancing productivity. Notably, Adobe is leading by example, utilising AI for content generation in most of their assessments. The conference stressed the need for a coherent AI strategy that outlines its application, the tools to be employed, and stringent security measures.

With 128 sessions to choose from there was more than just AI to discuss, covering cheating, lock down browsers and the role of the question bank management team were hot topics aof discussion. As a side note though just about EVERY session made some reference to AI. Must be something in that!