Season 2 Episode #18: The 2008 financial crisis forced Vaidas Kavaliunas to choose between switching to QA or losing his job. That decision launched a 17-year journey across fintech, insurance, gaming, and cybersecurity, each teaching him something different about quality.

We explore what stays the same when you test across radically different domains, what makes a test automation framework succeed or fail, and why AI is like a drunken genius in your passenger seat. Vaidas also shares the real risk of test inflation in CI/CD pipelines and why quality engineers will be in higher demand than ever.

From developer dreams to QA by accident - how a crisis, a tough choice, and a rabbit hole shaped a 17-year career

He planned to be a developer, but the 2008 crisis forced a choice: switch to QA or get fired
Being the last person on a project meant fixing the bugs he'd reported himself, and realising he preferred fixing over building
University taught him shell scripting and databases but nothing about QA, everything came from the field
A call from a finance institution about a new test automation role changed his trajectory and he didn't hesitate

Across five industries - what changes and what stays the same when you test in finance, cyber security, gaming, and insurance

SEB's ecosystem of 1,000+ applications was a crash course in automating across terminal emulators, APIs, desktop apps, and even Excel sheets
In insurance, end-to-end flows are much longer and backend systems felt older, demanding a different automation approach
Gaming was too fast for traditional automation, so he scaled the QA mindset by getting developers to test alongside testers
Cyber security at CUJO AI shifted the stakes from money to protecting people's households and children from threats

Test automation done right - golden rules, architecture, misconceptions, and the trap of automating for yourself

Don't chase coverage numbers and don't automate everything, focus on what brings the company money first
The biggest trap: writing automated tests for yourself instead of tests others can understand and maintain
A well-designed framework is easy to set up, produces clear reports in natural language, and helps users autocomplete
Flaky tests are the fastest way to lose confidence, and management needs educating on what automation can and cannot do

AI as a drunken genius, the future of QA, and why quality engineers will be in higher demand than ever

AI is like a drunken genius in your passenger seat: brilliant ideas, but you should never let it drive
The biggest risk is test inflation, CI/CD pipelines jammed with hundreds of AI-generated tests nobody maintains
In five years quality engineers will be in even higher demand because when everyone can create fast, quality drops
Automated tests sitting in your garage provide zero value, continuous integration and fast feedback loops remain the most underadopted practice

Vaidas Kavaliunas

VP of Global Quality Management at CUJO AI

Vaidas Kavaliunas has 18+ years of experience in quality engineering across fintech, cyber security, insurance, and gaming. What started as a forced career pivot during the 2008 financial crisis turned into a lifelong commitment to QA. His journey has taken him from SEB and TIA Technology to BetGamesTV and now CUJO AI, where he oversees global quality engineering for a company specialising in cyber security and network intelligence. He speaks at conferences, mentors engineers, and is passionate about building automation and engineering practices that scale.

Josh William Burmistre-Griffiths

Digital Marketing and Paid Ad Specialist

Josh William Burmistre-Griffiths works at TestDevLab, focusing on digital marketing and paid advertising across multiple platforms. His past experience working at agencies and unicorn startups in Latvia has equipped Josh with the expertise and a unique perspective that combines hands-on experience with a deep understanding of how technology shapes modern marketing practices. Helping him bring valuable digital marketing insight to the Tech Effect podcast.

#37 Vaidas Kavaliunas (CUJO AI): Test Inflation, Flaky Tests & How AI Won't Save Test Automation

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