Delaware-headquartered generative AI company BlinqIO looks back on twelve months of rapid growth and expansion.
In 2023, the testing solution provider launched its new BlinqIO Virtual Tester, an autonomous testing platform for websites and applications that is used by many large banks, insurance firms and other big players in the financial services space, because it enables the launch of human-like virtual software testers which are operated by generative AI, saving banks and others time and money.
Moreover, at the end of last year, BlinqIO co-founders Tal Barmeir and Guy Arieli announced a significant investment from a consortium of notable investors. Although the exact amount was not disclosed, allocations did include personal investments by several SoftBank executives.
Barmeir and Arieli, who previously co-founded Experitest, a SaaS mobile testing platform that was successfully acquired by TPG in 2022, are now driving to further disrupt the testing industry with BlinqIO.
Time for QA Financial to check in with serial entrepreneur Tal Barmeir to discuss the present state of the virtual testing market, growth opportunities ahead and the risks and challenges her company and the wider industry currently face.
Prior to founding BlinqIO and Experitest, Barmeir held various leadership positions in Accenture and Comverse. She has an MBA from INSEAD in Paris and graduated Summa Cum Laude in Economics and Magna Cum Laude in Law from Tel Aviv University.
Q: Your SaaS-based mediation platform leverages the power of Generative AI in the testing world. How does it enable test engineers to work autonomously, as you claim?
Tal Barmeir: The platform acts like a virtual software tester: its decision-making brains are artificial intelligence, and we provide it eyes to ‘see’ the website or application it is testing and ‘hands’ to control the digital interface and interact with it to perform the test.
Essentially, the virtual tester receives a test scenario description in plain English, analyses it, and then assesses the digital website or app it needs to test against. It then uses the power of AI to make decisions on how to perform the required test on the target website or app. Decisions such as how to navigate, what a shopping cart is, how to add an item, and other necessary decisions for performing the test.
Once it manages to perform the test, it creates test automation code on the fly for future executions, running then from the code it created initially, without any AI. It reverts back to the AI only if something changes in the UI and the test needs to be adjusted. In these cases, it will autonomously correct the test.
“Large incumbents face the issue of patching an existing product, but never actually build it from scratch.”
– Tal Barmeir
Q: The market is increasingly crowded and competitive. How do you compete and stand out, especially against large tech companies with deep pockets?
Tal Barmeir: We have built an AI-first product – meaning the product was designed from its inception as an AI product. This means we collect data, structure its storage, and know how to send it to the right algorithms to make use of it for the AI engine.
Large incumbents looking to use AI in their existing products will face the issue of patching an existing product, but never actually build it from scratch the right way. This is a big advantage we have, approaching this with a fresh perspective yet building on our past knowledge of the industry and its needs.
Q: As vendors merge and consolidate, will the value-add of that proposition need to be refined, slimmed down, and reinforced?
Tal Barmeir: I think incumbent players with pre-AI products will need to enter the market effectively via acquisitions. I believe the internal politics and inertia of an existing company with existing customers and product roadmaps will make it extremely hard for them to create an effective AI-first product organically.
Q: Looking at market barriers and risks, what are some of the key challenges you and the wider industry currently face?
Tal Barmeir: I think a main challenge, as always with new technologies, is the fear that it will harm the market and the people working in it. I think that, like any technological advancement, it is a productivity booster, and history has proven again and again that if embraced, the value of people using it increases rather than decreases. But I think this misconception is a challenge any AI-based offering has in today’s reality.
“I think regulation has its place in the right context.”
Tal Bermeir
Q: Speaking of new technologies and the possible harm they can do to companies and people, there is a need for regulation. But it is often said regulation can barely keep up with the rapidly evolving tech ecosystems we operate in. Do you agree? Or has regulation become a burden?
Tal Barmeir: I think regulation has its place in the right context. AI in general has huge power and, if misused, can harm similar to other technologies. In our specific area, the power of AI is used to accelerate the release of useful software products, from health software to travel applications and educational websites. There is much to gain from offerings such as AI-operated virtual testers, and I trust the regulators know to make the distinction when approaching AI based on the actual usage of the technology.
Q: Finally, if we look ahead, where do you see opportunities for growth and expansion?
Tal Barmeir: AI is an ever-evolving technology that is truly groundbreaking. It’s once in a hundred years that such a major change surfaces in the technology world, and the possibilities are endless. I can see many opportunities to grow both in autonomous testing and also in adjacent domains – both along the value chain of testing as well as in new domains such as documentation and user experience.
