Smiling billionaire spruiks AI as CEO fires 150 workers over video in scary digital revolution
The startling video message came hours before co-founder and billionaire Scott Farquhar heralded Australia's AI revolution in an Australian Press Club address. The former co-CEO said Australia needs to let go of "jobs from the past" and said those impacted by shifts can lean on the nations "very strong social safety net".
The duo founded the software company Atlassian in 2002 and have been labelled Australia's first tech billionaires.
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Cannon-Brookes sent the video to impacted staff on Wednesday morning, with the title 'Restructuring the CSS Team: A Difficult Decision for Our Future'. Employees weren't told about their jobs before the announcement and reportedly had to wait 15 minutes to find out their fate over email before their laptops were immediately blocked.
Atlassian declined to comment when approached by Yahoo Finance but confirmed it had made the 'hard decision' to let a small cohort of customer service and support employees go.
The company did not reveal where the workers were based. It's understood the decision was made following improvements to customer experience across the company's platform and tools, which meant there was a significant reduction in support needs. It has disputed the claim that the jobs will be 'replaced by AI'.
According to The Australian, Cannon-Brookes told affected staff the company's customer service team had become a victim of the business's broader success.
Larger clients had been moved off the older software platform and into the cloud, reducing the volume of complex support tasks required.
He noted future complaints would more likely be treated in part with AI.
Staff members are expected to receive six months pay.
It comes as Commonwealth Bank revealed it would be axing 45 roles in its customer call centres, citing AI as the reason behind the cuts.
The bank introduced a new chatbot system to answer customer inquiries in June and said it had reduced the volume of calls by 2,000 a week.
'I worry about jobs of the past': Atlassian co-founder spruiks AI
The lay-offs came the same day as former co-CEO and co-founder Scott Farquhar spruiked the benefits of AI to the National Press Club.
He expressed concerns about not finding a way to evolve with new technologies and said Australians can lean on government support while "re-skilling".
"I do worry if, as a nation, we want to stick to and have jobs of the past," Farquhar said on Wednesday.
"That is not a good plan for us."
The billionaire co-founder warned: "There will be job changes across the industry as a result of this".
'In these times or any time we should be helping our employees to make the transition bracket at company level but also at a national level," he said.
'Particularly in Australia, I feel very privileged and blessed that we live in a nation that has a very strong social safety net and very strong skill and opportunities for our people to re-skill into new areas.
"Every nation in the world will go through the same thing and compared to other nations and I think we're well placed for that.'
Farquhar, who stepped down from his role last year, called for the government to enable the construction of more data centres in Australia and renewable energy to power them.
He said Australia had an opportunity to become a major regional centre for AI infrastructure by housing data centres.
Speaking on ABC Breakfast this morning, Farquhar also said every company should be embracing AI.
'Every person should be using AI daily for as many things as they can,' he said.
'Like any new technology, it will feel awkward to start with, but every business person, every business leader, every government leader and every bureaucrat should be using it.'
Unions push for tougher regulation on use of AI
Earlier this year, technology sector union Professionals Australia reported an influx of workers from the multi-billion dollar industry joining amid AI-fuelled "uncertainty" about their job security.
Yahoo Finance have contacted Professionals Australia for comment.
Following the announcement of dozens of Australians losing their job to AI automisation, the Finance Sector Union (FSU) said the use of new technology must be done in partnership with workers, not at their expense.
'There is a human cost to this. You can't just replace frontline jobs with a voice bot and expect the same service for customers," FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano said.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions said it would use next month's Economic Reform Roundtable to call for a new set of mandatory enforceable agreements that would force employers to consult with staff before new AI technologies can be introduced into workplaces.
Employers would be required to reach agreements around guarantees for job security, skills development and retraining, transparency over technology use, privacy and data collection and use protections.
'We can realise the potential productivity benefits of AI while protecting the Australian fair go in the AI age,' ACTU assistant secretary Joseph Mitchell said.
'But we can't wish away the major disruptions and social risks that the bad use of AI and other new tech poses, through massive job losses and the theft of creative and intellectual property by big tech companies.'
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