AI is already taking jobs. And it’s not where you’d think
CEOs still won’t say the quiet part out loud, but AI is already taking jobs in Australia and the first to go are in HR, finance and in the industry that created the technology.
Across corporate Australia, AI has become the dominant topic of conversation from cubicles to boardrooms. Bethany Rae
Zoe Ogden had worked for IBM for 26 years, most recently in the human resources team where she scouted for junior talent, onboarded staff, and ran training and development workshops. In December, many of these tasks were taken from her – and given to a chatbot.
Ogden was one of 8000 IBM workers whose positions were made redundant globally, and one of 200 HR roles, as the tech giant updated its virtual assistant AskHR with agentic AI. It allowed the company to slash 40 per cent of the costs of career chats, training schedules, promotion tracking and other basic HR tasks.
Hannah TattersallWork and careers reporterHannah Tattersall is a work and careers reporter for The Australian Financial Review and writes about executive education. Email Hannah at hannah.tattersall@afr.com.au
