Gatling is a load testing tool that addresses issues with other tools like JMeter. It uses an asynchronous and non-blocking model based on the actor model to more accurately simulate loads. Gatling's DSL and Scala support allow for highly customizable scenarios and checks. It integrates with tools like Maven and Graphite and more features are in development like clustering and websockets support. A demo showed Gatling outperforming JMeter for high load testing of web applications.