You have access to a veteran. Has decades of experience. Available 24/7. Never tired. Never judging. Never too busy.
And you are using them to write test cases.
That is not just a missed opportunity. That is your career mistake.
After twenty years in testing and mentoring 50+ testers, I see the same pattern everywhere. Testers open Gen AI, type a question, copy the answer, close the tab. Transaction complete.Â
Growth? Zero.
They are using a senior as a copy machine.
And they wonder why they are stuck. For years in the same role.
You are asking the wrong questions
Junior: "What is the answer?"
Senior : "Am I solving the right problem? What am I missing? Why did I approach it this way?"
Did you see the difference ?
Most testers ask junior questions to AI and get junior answers. Then complain AI is not useful.
The tool is not the problem. The question is.
Stop asking AI to do your work. Instead, start asking AI to challenge your work.
Example from my experience with AI
Last year I was reviewing test cases for a payment reconciliation feature.
We had hundreds of scenarios. Business flows, edge cases, negative paths. I was confident. Twenty years of experience behind every decision.
Then I thought about using AI. Not to just add test cases. But I thought about using it differently.
I asked AI: "You are a senior tester. Expert in the finance domain. Review these test cases. Do not tell me what is good. Tell me what I missed. Be critical."
The response was awesome !
"What happens when the reconciliation job triggers at the exact moment a transaction is being processed? Have you tested that race condition?"
I had not. Not even once.
That scenario could have broken financial data in production. We added three test cases. Uncovered two major defects in UAT before they reached customers.
Twenty years. Still had a blind spot.
That was the day I stopped using AI as a Google search engine. I started using it as the most honest colleague I have ever worked with.
The prompt that actually works
Before any testing prompt, set the context. This matters more than the question.
Tell AI this:
"You are a senior tester with 20 years of experience. I am sharing my work with you. Do not validate it. Challenge it. Find the gaps. Ask me why I made certain decisions. Tell me where I am wrong. Be the colleague who makes me uncomfortable, not the one who tells me everything looks good."
Now ask your question.
The difference in response is immediate. AI stops agreeing with you. It starts questioning you. That is when real value begins.
Three conversations worth having
Review your work honestly. Do not ask "are these test cases good?" Ask: "If all these tests passed and production still broke, what would the bug most likely be? What assumption am I making that could be wrong?"
I do this before signing off on every test plan. Every single time AI finds something. Sometimes minor. Sometimes critical.
Challenge every decision with why. After any testing decision, ask AI: "Why might this be wrong? What risk am I not seeing?"
Most testers never ask why. They execute. They follow instructions. Why are questions uncomfortable? That discomfort is where growth lives.
Use it for career clarity, not career plans. Do not ask AI "give me a career roadmap." That is Google mode again.
A tester approached me. He was stuck. Five years experience. Good tester. Going nowhere. I asked him to talk to AI differently.
"Here is where I am. Here is what I think I should do next. Challenge me. Ask me why. Tell me what I am not seeing."
AI asked him one question he could not answer.
"Why do you want to move into automation? Is it because you enjoy it or because you think it is expected?"
He sat with that for two days. Realised he was chasing what the market wanted. Not what he was genuinely good at.
He changed direction. Got promoted four months later.
AI did not give him a career plan. It gave him the right question.
What happens if you don't
Testers who stay in Google mode look the same three years from now as they do today.
Same skills. Same thinking. Same ceiling.
In interviews they show AI-generated test cases they cannot explain. In career conversations they chase trends they do not believe in.
I have interviewed hundreds of testers. I can tell in ten minutes who challenges their own thinking and who copies answers.
The ones who challenge themselves get hired. Get promoted. Get opportunities.
The others stay stuck. And cannot figure out why.
Start today. Not someday.
Open any LLM today and try one thing differently.
Share your test cases to it and ask: "Where am I wrong?" .
Share your approach and ask: "What would a senior tester question here?"Â
Share your career thinking and ask: "What am I not seeing?"
The answer will make you uncomfortable.
That is exactly the point.
You have a veteran sitting next to you right now.
Stop asking them to write your test cases.
What are you going to do with it?
Â