Artificial intelligence and machine learning, finance and banking, industry-specific
The nation's largest lender bank offers to revive 45 “redundant” workers
Rashmi Ramesh (rashmiramesh_)•
August 25, 2025
Plans by one of Australia's largest employers to cut call centre employees and shuffle work to chatbots returning to chatbots after a large language model failed to reduce the volume of calls.
reference: Compliance Team Guide for Avoidance Prevention and Sanctions Exposure Detection
The Federal Bank of Australia said in July that it could cut down on 45 call centre jobs thanks to chatbots aimed at customers. Last Thursday, we admitted that artificial intelligence didn't reduce the number of customers that actually needed to talk to humans.
The bank's plan “did not properly consider all the business considerations involved, so this error meant that the role was not redundant,” a spokesman told Bloomberg.
Something troublesome happened after the unions in the finance sector made cuts to the national labor relations committee. “Call volume” was actually increasing, and the CBA was in a hurry to manage the situation by providing staff overtime and instructing team leaders to answer calls,” the union said in a statement Thursday. The union also claimed that banks appear to employ similar call centre roles in India, increasing the likelihood that the AI narrative is the cover of a more general outsourcing strategy.
Regarding the 45 workers selected to be fired, “the damage has already been done,” the union said. These employees “had to endure the stress and worries of facing redundancy” and “suddenly faced with the prospect of not being able to pay the bill.” Union officials told ARS Technica that they hoped that “many” of staff members who were left will receive redundancy payments rather than returns, given how they were treated.
Bloomberg analysis predicts that banks will eliminate up to 200,000 positions worldwide within the next five years, with back office, middle office and operations roles facing the greatest risks.
The controversy does not stop the CBA from pursuing AI initiatives. Earlier this month, the bank announced its partnership with Openai, exploring advanced generator AI solutions aimed at enhancing fraud and fraud detection and providing more personalized services for its customers. Bank executives argue that the initiative “will be able to “invest in our people and their AI proficiency to better support our customers,” and that it “embedded responsible use of AI across the workforce.” The CBA also details the adoption of Github Copilot for software development.
The union warned that CBA flip-floping in AI will serve as a reminder to all of us that employers can never believe in doing the right thing by their workers.
