Two months ago, Commonwealth Bank announced plans to replace 45 customer service workers with artificial intelligence chatbots.
However, across the financial services and banking sector, AI use has skyrocketed, cutting thousands of jobs, but connections rarely come into being official. That's part of the trend of reshaping the country's labor market in a closed room.
Dhanushi Jayatileka, a CBA worker who has recently become separate and redundant, says she is one of many workers who have been unofficially lost their jobs to AI.
Jayatireka, who worked in the bank's back office for four years, says her team had been removing staff from 2024, leaving people leaning against AI to exchange work that her former colleagues had done.
“We teach machines to ultimately get our job,” says Jayatireka, who is supported by the Financial Sector Union.
“We need to look after people first.”
A CBA spokesperson said Jayatileka's redundancy was not directly or indirectly related to AI and instead was for individual reasons, but could not comment further on the case of individual employees.
Experts warn that Australian major companies are cutting thousands of white-collar financial and technology jobs by helping accelerate AI use without public accepting unemployment.
Manju Ahuja, professor of information systems and technology management at the University of New South Wales, says there is a “observable” link between workforce changes and AI tools ingestion.
“It's just the tip of the iceberg [because] Many AI-related unemployment is simply not officially documented,” she says.
According to a study by the University of Queensland (UQ), sales, customer service and entry-level white-collar jobs are one of the vulnerable roles to being automated by AI. Similar findings were made by government employment and skills agencies last month.
“If you can standardize it to just one task, the job continues,” says Evan Shellshear, an auxiliary professor at UQ and research co-author.
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Shelsher says that when senior staff turn to AI, demand for consulting and accounting alumni and store clerks is already sliding in Australia.
The CBA says recent redundancy has nothing to do with the rise in AI, except for the 45 customer service roles. A spokesperson said the bank cannot comment on individual employee cases.
The spokesman said the CBA's total workforce has been on the rise since 2021, and even if others are cut, more staff are being added in non-automated areas.
The CBA is one of the largest Australian companies that promote the improved efficiency that has been produced by AI in recent months.
Business Bank queries were answered three times faster, increasing the interaction between engineer code change output and automated customer service by one-third and one-fifth respectively, with call centre latency reduced.
Reduce the corporate world
ANZ announced on Tuesday that it would loot 3,500 of its more than 40,000 employees by September 2026. The bankers began using an AI analytics assistant called AMIE two months ago.
ANZ CEO Nuno Matos announced the restructuring, saying “this decision has nothing to do with AI or technology.”
Telstra expects to cut 2,800 jobs a year in June and another 550 roles in 2025. According to its latest annual report, Telco saved $303 million in labor costs between 2024 and 2025.
Most of the remaining staff uses Microsoft AI assistant Copilot, with senior executives saying that AI adoption will help reduce costs and reduce the 30,000 workforce.
In August, Queensland Bank cut 200 roles, including call centres, and partnered with multinational technology giant Capgemini to accelerate the use of AI and manage several queries overseas.
A spokesman for Queensland Bank and Telstra Bank says these jobs have no connection to investments in AI and new technology will help staff serve clients and work more effectively. Telstra adds that the company will consult with staff and unions about the long-term impact of AI on staffing.
Westpac, which also promotes the adoption of AI tools, is in the process of cutting an estimated 1,500 jobs after hiring nearly 200 jobs in the beginning of 2025.
Asked whether AI use has facilitated reductions, spokespersons for both companies said the reductions were the result of changing business needs for a particular role, and that the affected workers are being supported.
AI is already struggling with jobs in the US, and one of eight early career roles in the most exposed professions has been lost, according to a Stanford University survey released in August.
The recent unemployment rate among college graduates has historically been near 5% in the US in 2025, but hiring tech companies including Salesforce and Crowdstrike and new staff alternative AI has slowed down.
Financial and technology companies say that AI can give people a higher value task after automating repetitive tasks, but not all Australians have that experience.
Kathryn Sullivan, one of the 45 CBA customer service workers announced by the bank, announced that she would be redundant for AI, and she said she was hoping to work with AI.
“I was expecting [AI] We will take away some of the work so that we can actually provide better services, and help you make your work better and we can actually provide better services,” she says.
“[But] They actually use it only to reduce the workforce. ”
