‘They let go of the four of us’: Team of Sydney medical receptionists replaced by AI

A Sydney office worker has detailed the moment she and three of her colleagues were called into a meeting and told AI had replaced them.

A Sydney medical receptionist has described the dreaded moment she and others on her team were replaced by artificial intelligence, marking a concerning leap in AI from job-threatening to job-taking.

Katherine, 24, worked as a medical receptionist at a clinic in the Inner West of Sydney. Four days before Christmas her and three young co-workers were called into a meeting where they were informed their roles were being replaced by AI.

“They basically brought us in and said, ‘thank you so much for all your work here, unfortunately we found a system where we can now use AI to put through the phones that will be on hold to a natural computer AI so no one else has to pick up the phone unless they have a free moment,” she told news.com.au.

Katherine was let go as a medical receptionist in favour of an AI. Picture: Supplied

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Staff were told emails would be automatically filed into separated mailboxes and patients would be greeted with a generic computer-generated message, saying “thanks so much, we’ll get back to you shortly”.

“It was very organised, but we wouldn’t be doing much. So they let go of the four of us,” Katherine said.

Adding insult to the incident, management waited until the six-month-long probation period for new employees was almost up before letting them know just four days before Christmas – then amazingly asked the employees for help setting up the systems that would be replacing them.

Katherine was set to go on holiday over the Christmas and New Years break but said the knowledge that she didn’t have a job to come back too weighed heavily on the trip.

“I don’t think on a Friday afternoon before Christmas, four days before Christmas, was the right time to tell people they were getting let go. I remember I called my dad afterwards and I was like ‘yikes’.”

The incident occured just four days before Christmas. Picture: Supplied

“He was livid. He works in tech and he’s head of IT for an insurance fund. So he said, “that’s wrong. If they want AI, they should bring in somebody who actually knows how to code rather than telling people that their job, that is being taken over by AI, is something that they’re actually going to have to do themselves”.”

Katherine said that even though she was “quite upset” by the news and the manner in which it was delivered it was her younger co-workers who were most affected.

“They had never been let go of a job, or they had never been sort of in this type of area where you sit down and have a serious conversation,” she explained.

“They didn’t realise that this is kind of how life works. So they were upset and were like, “this isn’t fair”.

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Katherine was one of four let go. Picture: Supplied

“I kind of sat there, thinking “I understand, but I don’t necessarily think the way you’ve done this was appropriate”.

“I think it should have been a conversation one-on-one with a few of us rather than as a group setting.

“I think that was very unprofessional.

“To sit there and say, “we’re letting you all go”. Obviously, you’re going to get an uproar from four young girls sitting in a room together.”

Katherine said the experience had “absolutely” changed the way she thought of AI but it was something that people were going to have to get used to.

“I’m very aware of how technology is moving and I’m very aware of how fast it’s moving,” she said.

“And AI, unfortunately, is part of our new normal. You speak to anybody at a finance firm and they are all using ChatGPT in their emails.

“As a society, we need to be learning how to work with it rather than against it because you’re not going to get away from this.

“It’s a learning experience, but I’m still frustrated because I believe that in the healthcare industry (using AI like this) is completely inappropriate.

“These are people’s lives; these are medical certificates, these are X-rays that are showing maybe they might have cancer.”

“It’s very personal and private, and if those things are leaked or if they’re lost or misread, that’s not okay. That’s somebody’s life in jeopardy. So I do have a big hatred towards that being used in the healthcare industry.”

Originally published as ‘They let go of the four of us’: Team of Sydney medical receptionists replaced by AI