Latest news with #TechCouncilofAustralia
Sky News AU
30-07-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
Tech billionaire Scott Farquhar says Australia needs to deregulate AI in speech to National Press Club
A leading tech entrepreneur has said the Australian government needs to consider deregulating Artificial Intelligence, conceding that jobs will be lost in the transition. Scott Farquhar, Chair of the Tech Council of Australia, told the National Press Club in Canberra the uptake and rapid development of AI is comparable to the uptake of electricity in the 1800s. He also warned that some jobs would inevitably be lost in the transition. 'It requires new infrastructure, and we will need different jobs,' he said, before adding that there needs to be a cooperation with the federal government. 'Today we need to partner with the government to pave the way. 'The scale of the opportunity and risks of missing out demand a new kind of partnership – one that moves at the speed of technology, not at the speed of bureaucracy.' The uptake of AI by firms in Australia have rattled some unions, as the Commonwealth Bank announced it was letting 45 people go and replaced its call centres with an AI chatbot. Mr Farquhar was questioned about the mass redundancies taking place across multiple industries. In response he said that Australia was a resilient country, and that there would be opportunities to retrain the workforce. '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 training and opportunities for our people to re-skill into new areas,' he said. Mr Farquhar urged the federal government to work on building large scale data centres, like the deal the Albanese government agreed with Amazon. He also urged the federal government to embrace AI in its day to day operations, which he said would be leading by example.
Sydney Morning Herald
30-07-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Billionaire tech chief spruiks AI as company he co-founded cuts 150 jobs
Tech billionaire Scott Farquhar has defended widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, saying it presents an opportunity for Australia to make 'megabucks' through data centres, after the tech giant he co-founded slashed 150 jobs in customer services roles exposed to the new technology. Farquhar, who is chair of the Tech Council of Australia and co-founded the $80 billion company Atlassian, spoke to the National Press Club on Wednesday to argue the country should reform copyright law to let AI companies mine data more freely as part of a productivity blueprint. Farquhar, who stepped down as co-chief executive of Atlassian but remains on its board, would not say whether he was aware the company planned to cut 150 jobs this week in an announcement that was delivered by chief executive Mike Cannon-Brookes via video call. 'If we make call centre staff more productive, people aren't going to call more [and] we'll probably need less call centre staff,' Farquhar said. 'Some parts of our economy will grow significantly as AI makes them more productive, and some parts of our economy will shrink as we do that.' While Farquhar said affected employees needed help to transition jobs, 'both at a company level and as a country', he said putting the burden of retraining on companies could put them at a comparative disadvantage to other places in the world. Loading An Atlassian spokeswoman pointed to comments on an internal blog saying the company had made investments over the past two years aimed at improving customer experience with the platform's tools. 'For us to be successful, two things have to be true: our customers must be successful, and our business has to be fortified to succeed within the extremely fast industry that we're in,' it said. 'Our value of 'Build with Heart and Balance' is about making the hard, right decisions with passion, empathy, and care.' A study from Microsoft, another tech giant that has invested heavily in AI, found that customer service workers were among those most exposed to losing their jobs to artificial intelligence.
The Age
30-07-2025
- Business
- The Age
Billionaire tech chief spruiks AI as company he co-founded cuts 150 jobs
Tech billionaire Scott Farquhar has defended widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, saying it presents an opportunity for Australia to make 'megabucks' through data centres, after the tech giant he co-founded slashed 150 jobs in customer services roles exposed to the new technology. Farquhar, who is chair of the Tech Council of Australia and co-founded the $80 billion company Atlassian, spoke to the National Press Club on Wednesday to argue the country should reform copyright law to let AI companies mine data more freely as part of a productivity blueprint. Farquhar, who stepped down as co-chief executive of Atlassian but remains on its board, would not say whether he was aware the company planned to cut 150 jobs this week in an announcement that was delivered by chief executive Mike Cannon-Brookes via video call. 'If we make call centre staff more productive, people aren't going to call more [and] we'll probably need less call centre staff,' Farquhar said. 'Some parts of our economy will grow significantly as AI makes them more productive, and some parts of our economy will shrink as we do that.' While Farquhar said affected employees needed help to transition jobs, 'both at a company level and as a country', he said putting the burden of retraining on companies could put them at a comparative disadvantage to other places in the world. Loading An Atlassian spokeswoman pointed to comments on an internal blog saying the company had made investments over the past two years aimed at improving customer experience with the platform's tools. 'For us to be successful, two things have to be true: our customers must be successful, and our business has to be fortified to succeed within the extremely fast industry that we're in,' it said. 'Our value of 'Build with Heart and Balance' is about making the hard, right decisions with passion, empathy, and care.' A study from Microsoft, another tech giant that has invested heavily in AI, found that customer service workers were among those most exposed to losing their jobs to artificial intelligence.
The Guardian
30-07-2025
- The Guardian
Atlassian cofounder says his children have ‘very defined screen time'
Scott Farquhar, the Tech Council of Australia chair and Atlassian cofounder, says he makes sure he is aware of what his three school-age children are viewing. 'We spend time with our kids together and educate them about age-appropriate things they need to be worried about on the internet, in the same way we educate them about crossing the road,' Farquhar said
News.com.au
30-07-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Jobs could be lost in AI transition, tech leader warns
One of Australia's leading tech voices says he worries jobs will be lost as artificial intelligence transforms industries unless government, employers and workers do more to prepare. Atlassian co-founder and Tech Council of Australia chair Scott Farquhar likened the economic potential of AI to electrification when he fronted the National Press Club on Wednesday. Electricity supercharged economies across the world but, as Mr Farquhar pointed out, made some jobs obsolete in the process. Tapping into the zeitgeist, he declared AI was 'mysterious and dangerous'. 'It requires new infrastructure and we will need different jobs,' he said. 'Today we need to partner with the government to pave the way. 'The scale of the opportunity and risks of missing out demand a new kind of partnership – one that moves at the speed of technology, not at the speed of bureaucracy.' Mr Farquhar's own company, Atlassian, cut 150 jobs earlier on Wednesday. In a video message, the firm's chief executive Mike Cannon-Brookes informed the employees their roles would be replaced by AI. Asked about the decision, Mr Farquhar repeated that there 'will be jobs changes' as a result of AI. 'In these times, or any time, we should be helping our employees to make the transition at a 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 training and opportunities for our people to re-skill into new areas.' He went on to say 'every nation in the world will go through the same thing compared to other nations and I think we're well placed for that'. Mr Farquhar also said he did 'worry'. 'If, as a nation we want to stick and have the jobs of the past, that is not a good plan for us,' Mr Farquhar said. 'I also think that if we place the burden of retraining on the companies that are making those changes, that puts us at a competitive disadvantage to other places in the world.' Asked about guardrails to help manage the challenges posed by the AI transition, he said more regulation was not the answer. 'I start in the camp of how do we have less new regulations and how do we have the regulations we currently have be applied better,' Mr Farquhar said. He said the regulatory challenge for jobs was 'making sure that employees and citizens have a clear transition'. Among his key calls on Canberra to help make the most of AI's economic opportunities were creating fast-track digital apprenticeships and making Australia the regional data centre hub.
