What is Artificial Intelligence According to ISTQB?

When people hear about Artificial Intelligence (AI), they often imagine robots, virtual assistants, or sci-fi movies. But what does the ISTQB, the global leader in software testing certification, say about it?In this post, you'll learn what AI means from a professional testing perspective, how ISTQB defines it, and why it's essential for testers today and in the future.

🧠 What is AI According to ISTQB?

According to the ISTQB CT-AI syllabus, Artificial Intelligence is defined as:

“The capability of a designed system to acquire, process and apply knowledge and skills”.

It’s not magic. It’s about creating systems that can learn and act effectively, based on data or experience.

🌀 The “AI Effect”: When AI Becomes Normal

The AI Effect, as described by ISTQB, refers to the phenomenon where once a task previously considered AI becomes commonplace, it's no longer seen as "intelligent".📍Example:

• In the 1990s, a chess-playing program was considered AI.
• Today, it’s just "brute force logic" — not “intelligence”.

This shows that our perception of AI evolves as technology becomes normalized.

📚 Types of AI According to ISTQB

ISTQB classifies AI into three categories:

All the AI we use today belongs to the Narrow AI category.

🔧 How is AI Different from Traditional Software?

🔩 Traditional software:

• Step-by-step instructions from the developer.
• Explicit rules and logic.

🤖 AI-based systems (e.g., using machine learning):

• Learn from data patterns.
• Rules are inferred, not manually coded.

📷 Example: An AI model learns to identify cats in photos by detecting patterns, not by being told what a “cat ear” is.

🧪 How Do You Test AI?

This is where things get interesting. Testers need to understand:

• What kind of AI is used.
• What new risks are involved.
• Which metrics apply (e.g., precision, false positives).
• What tools exist to evaluate AI quality.

Testing AI isn’t just running automated scripts — it means understanding the internal behavior of often opaque models.

✅ Conclusion

Artificial Intelligence is not just a buzzword — it’s a game-changing technology. As testers, we must know what it is, how it works, and how to validate it.The ISTQB CT-AI syllabus provides a solid foundation to understand AI in testing, both conceptually and practically. Best of all: you don’t need to be a math genius to learn it.