Latest news with #VickiBrady
The Age
4 days ago
- Business
- The Age
Friend or foe? The AI bloodletting has begun in Australia
Telstra boss Vicki Brady, though less vocal on the company's AI developments at this week's results, was similarly forthright at its recent strategy day. 'We see lots of potential across those areas … customer engagement, how we operate and manage our network, how we develop software and manage our IT environment, how it supports back of office for us where you tend to have manual processes.' While it sounds like a great opportunity for Australian business, it sounds rather alarming when viewed from the vantage of their employees. After all, both are relatively low-growth businesses investing heavily in AI. Will this investment pay off by boosting worker productivity, or by replacing them? 'CBA publicly preaches productivity and innovation while quietly eroding local jobs. This hypocrisy cannot go unchallenged,' Finance Sector Union national secretary Julia Angrisano said after the bank's record $10 billion profit this week. The Australian Council of Trade Unions has demanded that employers guarantee workers' job security before introducing artificial intelligence to protect against jobs carnage. Local academics used research by the International Labour Organisation to translate its findings on AI job losses to Australia. They came up with a startling forecast of Australia's AI future in 2050: 32 per cent of current jobs in Australia could be done by AI. 'But that doesn't mean 32 per cent of people will lose their jobs overnight,' Victoria University academics Janine Dixon and James Lennox said in a report posted to The Conversation last week. 'It will take time for AI capabilities to be installed, giving people time to train for alternative careers. Much of the impact is likely to be years away.' This timeframe gives AI a lot of time to move beyond relatively low-level tasks, like replacing basic call centre work, to replacing white-collar jobs – like the software developers who make it. Loading So what does Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes think the impact will be of the AI transformation on the company he built alongside Farquhar? It is in a frenzy of AI upgrades of its own products and surely looking at the productivity benefits. Cannon-Brookes sees a bright future despite AI's coding adeptness. It appears that the famously prescient 2011 claim by US billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen that 'software is eating the world' still holds. 'Do I think there will be far less developers in the world five years from now? No, I don't think so,' Cannon-Brookes told investors on the company's earnings conference call last week. 'And yes, we're still hiring lots of engineers and developers with the growth of the business.' Cannon-Brookes' argument is simple: the world will need far more software and AI means it will be cheaper and easier to extend its development beyond corporate tech teams to the actual business itself. 'Whether they're in finance or HR or marketing, there's going to be a lot more people creating software,' he says. Mind you, Atlassian has a lot riding on this version of the future. Its business is literally built on managing the workflows and projects for this sort of development. The Farquhar and Cannon-Brookes fortunes will rapidly dwindle if this development can be done by an AI bot instead of teams of employees. But even AI's transformation of low-level customer work – like call centres – is not necessarily seen as a bad thing for local jobs. It could represent a boon for our country, says KPMG's chief digital officer John Munnelly. 'A lot of the stuff that AI is improving is the tasks we used to offshore, like call centre work,' he says. 'There's a really great opportunity for the Australian economy with AI' KPMG's chief digital officer John Munnelly The productivity dividend that Farquhar mentioned could actually make a lot more of this work viable here. 'There's a really great opportunity for the Australian economy with AI,' Munnelly says. Loading But the interesting stuff is already happening further up the wage chain – like KPMG's new AI tax tool that allows its executives to vastly accelerate the delivery of first-draft advice to clients. 'What used to take us two weeks to go and prepare – if a client's in the middle of a deal – now we can literally get it out the door in a day,' Munnelly says. It was left to KPMG chief executive Andrew Yates to address the conundrum this poses. What will this KPMG employee do with the nine days that would have previously been spent on this work? 'I think our current hypothesis is that what we do will change. But AI and the technology we've got will generate so much more data that our work will change from collating that data to really assessing, analysing, presenting, interpreting much more data than is currently available,' he says. 'There will be a real need for that insight and technical understanding of all the data that's produced.' As for the analysts trying to make sense of the AI talk which is starting to creep into earnings season speeches and rising costs, there is a more prosaic question. 'Companies have been keen to point out their investments in AI, but when will we see it translate to the bottom line?' asked UBS strategist Richard Schellback. Even Comyn, who packed more than a dozen AI references into his introduction to the bank's full-year results, came up with a cautious answer. He foresees a more effective workforce, producing higher quality work with both revenue and cost out opportunities. But he does not expect this to come easily. 'You can imagine that there are some much more efficient ways of delivering some of the things we currently do. But I do think that's going to take some time, like some years to work through some of the accuracy and quality that's required.'
Sydney Morning Herald
4 days ago
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Friend or foe? The AI bloodletting has begun in Australia
Telstra boss Vicki Brady, though less vocal on the company's AI developments at this week's results, was similarly forthright at its recent strategy day. 'We see lots of potential across those areas … customer engagement, how we operate and manage our network, how we develop software and manage our IT environment, how it supports back of office for us where you tend to have manual processes.' While it sounds like a great opportunity for Australian business, it sounds rather alarming when viewed from the vantage of their employees. After all, both are relatively low-growth businesses investing heavily in AI. Will this investment pay off by boosting worker productivity, or by replacing them? 'CBA publicly preaches productivity and innovation while quietly eroding local jobs. This hypocrisy cannot go unchallenged,' Finance Sector Union national secretary Julia Angrisano said after the bank's record $10 billion profit this week. The Australian Council of Trade Unions has demanded that employers guarantee workers' job security before introducing artificial intelligence to protect against jobs carnage. Local academics used research by the International Labour Organisation to translate its findings on AI job losses to Australia. They came up with a startling forecast of Australia's AI future in 2050: 32 per cent of current jobs in Australia could be done by AI. 'But that doesn't mean 32 per cent of people will lose their jobs overnight,' Victoria University academics Janine Dixon and James Lennox said in a report posted to The Conversation last week. 'It will take time for AI capabilities to be installed, giving people time to train for alternative careers. Much of the impact is likely to be years away.' This timeframe gives AI a lot of time to move beyond relatively low-level tasks, like replacing basic call centre work, to replacing white-collar jobs – like the software developers who make it. Loading So what does Atlassian co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes think the impact will be of the AI transformation on the company he built alongside Farquhar? It is in a frenzy of AI upgrades of its own products and surely looking at the productivity benefits. Cannon-Brookes sees a bright future despite AI's coding adeptness. It appears that the famously prescient 2011 claim by US billionaire venture capitalist Marc Andreessen that 'software is eating the world' still holds. 'Do I think there will be far less developers in the world five years from now? No, I don't think so,' Cannon-Brookes told investors on the company's earnings conference call last week. 'And yes, we're still hiring lots of engineers and developers with the growth of the business.' Cannon-Brookes' argument is simple: the world will need far more software and AI means it will be cheaper and easier to extend its development beyond corporate tech teams to the actual business itself. 'Whether they're in finance or HR or marketing, there's going to be a lot more people creating software,' he says. Mind you, Atlassian has a lot riding on this version of the future. Its business is literally built on managing the workflows and projects for this sort of development. The Farquhar and Cannon-Brookes fortunes will rapidly dwindle if this development can be done by an AI bot instead of teams of employees. But even AI's transformation of low-level customer work – like call centres – is not necessarily seen as a bad thing for local jobs. It could represent a boon for our country, says KPMG's chief digital officer John Munnelly. 'A lot of the stuff that AI is improving is the tasks we used to offshore, like call centre work,' he says. 'There's a really great opportunity for the Australian economy with AI' KPMG's chief digital officer John Munnelly The productivity dividend that Farquhar mentioned could actually make a lot more of this work viable here. 'There's a really great opportunity for the Australian economy with AI,' Munnelly says. Loading But the interesting stuff is already happening further up the wage chain – like KPMG's new AI tax tool that allows its executives to vastly accelerate the delivery of first-draft advice to clients. 'What used to take us two weeks to go and prepare – if a client's in the middle of a deal – now we can literally get it out the door in a day,' Munnelly says. It was left to KPMG chief executive Andrew Yates to address the conundrum this poses. What will this KPMG employee do with the nine days that would have previously been spent on this work? 'I think our current hypothesis is that what we do will change. But AI and the technology we've got will generate so much more data that our work will change from collating that data to really assessing, analysing, presenting, interpreting much more data than is currently available,' he says. 'There will be a real need for that insight and technical understanding of all the data that's produced.' As for the analysts trying to make sense of the AI talk which is starting to creep into earnings season speeches and rising costs, there is a more prosaic question. 'Companies have been keen to point out their investments in AI, but when will we see it translate to the bottom line?' asked UBS strategist Richard Schellback. Even Comyn, who packed more than a dozen AI references into his introduction to the bank's full-year results, came up with a cautious answer. He foresees a more effective workforce, producing higher quality work with both revenue and cost out opportunities. But he does not expect this to come easily. 'You can imagine that there are some much more efficient ways of delivering some of the things we currently do. But I do think that's going to take some time, like some years to work through some of the accuracy and quality that's required.'
Time of India
5 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Australia's Telstra reports annual profit jump, unveils $655 million buyback
Australian telecom Telstra on Thursday forecast higher operating earnings for 2026, following strong contributions from its mobile and fixed connectivity units that bolstered 2025 earnings, while also announcing a A$1 billion ($654.60 million) share buyback. Price increases on most postpaid mobile plans, along with a rise in mobile network customers, have strengthened Telstra's margins despite intensified competition from rivals. "We are also increasing the capacity of our subsea cable network to meet customers' increasing bandwidth consumption, growing artificial intelligence usage and data centre demands," Chief Executive Vicki Brady said. The telecom firm's A$1 billion buyback, citing growth in earnings and a strong balance sheet, follows February's share repurchase announcement of A$750 million. Telstra said it expects underlying EBITDA after lease amortisation between A$8.15 billion and A$8.45 billion for fiscal 2026, up from A$8.02 billion reported in fiscal 2025. The company reported a 31% rise in profit to A$2.34 billion for the year ended June 30, up from A$1.79 billion a year earlier, aligning with the Visible Alpha consensus estimate of A$2.34 billion. Telstra's focus on cost management, including the layoff of 550 employees as part of its ongoing restructuring of enterprise business and other organisational changes, has also supported its bottom line. It declared a final dividend of 9.5 Australian cents per share, slightly higher than the 9 Australian cents declared a year ago.
Economic Times
5 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
Infosys shares jump 2% after Rs 1,300 crore deal to buy Telstra's Versent stake
Shares of IT services company Infosys jumped 2% to Rs 1449.90 on Thursday after the Bengaluru-based firm agreed to acquire a 75% stake in Versent Group, a wholly owned unit of Australia's Telstra Group, in a deal valued at AUD 233.25 million (over Rs 1,300 crore). ADVERTISEMENT Infosys said on Wednesday that the acquisition, comprising upfront and deferred consideration but excluding management incentives and retention bonuses, would expand its local presence in Australia's cloud and AI services market. The transaction is expected to close in the second half of fiscal 2026, subject to clearance from Australia's Foreign Investment Review Board and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission. Melbourne-headquartered Versent Group delivers cloud services to organisations in sectors such as finance, energy, utilities, government and education. It employs 650 engineers, strategists, and advisors, and in FY25 reported revenues of AUD 211.4 million (over Rs 1,800 crore), serving blue-chip clients across Australia and New Zealand. Telstra will retain the remaining 25% stake, while Infosys will have operational control of the joint venture. The partnership will combine Telstra's connectivity, Versent's local digital engineering expertise, and Infosys' global scale in AI and cloud. The offering will be underpinned by Infosys' AI platform Topaz, its cloud services suite Cobalt, and cybersecurity capabilities from The Missing Link. 'This collaboration reflects our confidence in the value we can unlock together,' Telstra CEO Vicki Brady said. Infosys CEO Salil Parekh described the deal as a 'new opportunity to further accelerate the innovation agenda' for the region, while Infosys executive vice-president Anand Swaminathan said the JV would deliver 'secure, resilient' cloud and AI solutions for Australia and New Zealand. ADVERTISEMENT U.S.-listed shares of Infosys rose after the announcement and were last up 1.6% at $16.33. Unlock 500+ Stock Recos on App Also read | Infosys to buy 75% stake in Telstra unit for $153 million (Disclaimer: Recommendations, suggestions, views and opinions given by the experts are their own. These do not represent the views of the Economic Times) ADVERTISEMENT (You can now subscribe to our ETMarkets WhatsApp channel)
The Australian
5 days ago
- Business
- The Australian
Telstra sells cloud business to Infosys amid $2.34bn profit
Telstra is splashing $1bn on a share buyback as its ruthless cost-cutting strategy delivered a $2.34bn profit, while the company has sold its cloud business to Indian tech firm Infosys. It comes just two months after Australia's biggest telco completed a $750m share buyback and as mobile earnings growth slows to its lowest level in four years as it faces increased competition from Optus and Vodafone owner TPG's $1.6bn network sharing deal. 'We are focussed on continuing to deliver value for our shareholders, including through our core business cash flow, active portfolio and investment management, and disciplined capital management,' chief executive Vicki Brady said. 'As we consider the best way to deliver these outcomes, we carefully consider the balance between investing in the growth of our business and the potential for additional shareholder returns.' Annual net profit soared 31 per cent to $2.34bn, but revenue was flat at $23.9bn. Telstra will pay shareholders a final dividend of 9.5c, fully franked on September 25. It takes the total for the year to 19c a share, up a 5.6 per cent from last year. But Telstra shares fell more than 2.9 per cent to $4.84 in early morning trade on Thursday. Mobile growth 'disappointed' some investors, with the telco reporting its slowest earnings growth in four years. Mobile product income firmed 2.7 per cent to $11.02bn, while Jeffries analyst Roger Samuel said on a like-for-like bases Telstra only added 4000 postpaid mobile subscriptions in the second half. Most of the 106,000 new customers Telstra claimed came from its wholesale business, or brands like Woolworths and Aldi selling their own mobile plans under Telstra's network. Competition intensified after Optus and TPG launched their $1.6bn deal to share mobile towers earlier this year. But Ms Brady said a competitive mobile market was 'not new' and attributed the slower growth to the 3G shutdown as well as Telstra switching off Covid-era plans. 'When you do do a transition of generations in mobile networks, that obviously that's a big deal,' Ms Brady said. 'We won't have a generational change in mobile networks in you know, the mobile business is dynamic. Customers make different choices. For example, one of the one offs here is around deactivating some things that were sort of Covid-era, that the decisions made by customers to do that. So you can't quite anticipate those things.' Ms Brady attributed the overall profit growth to 'strong cost control and disciplined capital management' as it closes its much-hyped T25 strategy. 'Our reported growth this year is stronger than underlying growth because of significant one-off net costs totalling $715m in the prior year, mostly related to impairments and restructuring associated with the reset of our Telstra Enterprise business. 'Core fixed costs decreased by 4.7per cent or $306m in the year. Cumulatively, we reduced our core fixed costs by $428m since FY22.' Telstra also announced on Thursday that it would sell 75 per cent of its cloud business Versent Group to Infosys for $233m. Ms Brady said it would strengthen an artificial intelligence partnership between the two companies. 'For our enterprise portfolio, this means sharpening our focus on the key capabilities that deliver on the strategy and building deep partnerships that maximise the value of our networks,' Ms Brady said. 'Versent Group has earned its reputation by helping Australian enterprises make the shift from traditional technology to modern cloud environments – delivering digital transformation at scale. 'Our partnership with Infosys reflects our confidence in the value we can unlock together. Their global scale, deep industry knowledge, and culture of innovation and service excellence will be instrumental in accelerating Versent Group's growth and impact across the region.' Enterprise EBITDA also grew by $103m, as Telstra 'resets' the previously poor performing division. International earnings fell $96m. 'We have completed a strategic review of this business and are now taking action, including to reduce costs,' Ms Brady said. Overall, EBITDA was $8.02bn, which Telstra expects will rise to $8.15-8.45bn in the year ahead. Read related topics: Telstra Jared Lynch Technology Editor Jared Lynch is The Australian's Technology Editor, with a career spanning two decades. Jared is based in Melbourne and has extensive experience in markets, start-ups, media and corporate affairs. His work has gained recognition as a finalist in the Walkley and Quill awards. Previously, he worked at The Australian Financial Review, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Technology A battle is brewing between artists and tech giants over AI access to creative content, with Workday breaking ranks to support creator control. Nation Trades and nursing emerge as the safest career choices as artificial intelligence threatens to eliminate traditional office and marketing roles across Australia.
