How Microsoft Product Teams Leverage AI in Testing (and Beyond)

AI is rapidly becoming part of everyday engineering workflows-but what does it look like when it’s applied inside large-scale, real-world product teams? Beyond demos and experiments, how does AI actually help teams move faster, improve quality, and make better decisions?
In this session, we go behind the scenes with the Azure DevOps team at Microsoft to explore how AI is being used in practice today-where it delivers clear value, where it still falls short, and what’s coming next.

Event Details

• Date: Wednesday, 21st January 2026
• Time: 5:45 PM – 8:30 PM MT
• Venue: InceptionU - 800 3 St SE, 3rd Floor, Calgary, AB T2G 0E7

Session: How Microsoft Product Teams Leverage AI in Testing (and Beyond)
Speaker: David Paquette, Principal Software Engineer

In this talk, David Paquette shares how engineers on the Azure DevOps team are leveraging AI to improve software quality and accelerate delivery.

You’ll learn:

• How AI is being applied across testing and engineering workflows
• New and upcoming AI-powered features currently in development
• Where AI is genuinely helping teams today
• Where AI isn’t helping yet-and why

This is an honest, practitioner-led look at AI in action inside one of the world’s most widely used developer platforms-focused on lessons learned, real trade-offs, and practical outcomes.

Key Takeaways

• How large product teams use AI to improve testing and quality
• Practical examples of AI-enabled workflows inside Azure DevOps
• Clear insight into AI’s current limitations in real engineering environments
• A realistic view of how AI helps teams move faster-beyond hype

About the Speaker
David Paquette is a Principal Software Engineer at Microsoft, working on the Azure DevOps team. Before joining Microsoft, Dave spent over a decade building software for financial, agricultural, and energy companies, specializing in .NET and web development. His experience spans building scalable systems, improving developer workflows, and delivering reliable software at scale.

David brings a pragmatic, engineering-first perspective on AI-focused on what actually works in production environments.
🔗 LinkedIn:[ https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-paquette-a7997b7/](https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-paquette-a7997b7/)

Why You Should Attend

• Learn how AI is used inside real Microsoft product teams
• Understand where AI adds value-and where it doesn’t (yet)
• Get insights directly from an Azure DevOps engineer
• See beyond demos to real-world engineering trade-offs
• Connect with Calgary’s QA, testing, and developer community

About The Test Tribe
The Test Tribe is the world’s largest software testing community, empowering testers globally since 2018. With 700+ events and 150K+ members across 130+ countries, we bring testers together to learn, grow, and connect through meetups, conferences, cohorts, masterclasses, and more.

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