diff --git a/test/integration/roles/test_copy/tasks/main.yml b/test/integration/roles/test_copy/tasks/main.yml
index edae89f56a..8153ba1508 100644
--- a/test/integration/roles/test_copy/tasks/main.yml
+++ b/test/integration/roles/test_copy/tasks/main.yml
@@ -117,6 +117,10 @@
   register: recursive_copy_result
 
 - debug: var=recursive_copy_result
+- name: assert that the recursive copy did something
+  assert:
+    that:
+      - "recursive_copy_result|changed"
 
 - name: check that a file in a directory was transferred
   stat: path={{output_dir}}/sub/subdir/bar.txt