Australia’s biggest telco and largest bank are partnering with the University of Sydney on a multi-year study to map AI’s impact on jobs, productivity and workplace identity. Telstra already runs more than 400 AI projects, including its SmartFix system, which remotely diagnoses and fixes internet issues before customers call, saving millions of dollars a year.
Commonwealth Bank has become one of the country’s most aggressive AI adopters, using the technology to block scammers and overhaul how its developers write and test software. Law firm Ashurst Perkins Coie and consulting group Deloitte are also joining the project, giving researchers data across legal, banking, consulting and telecommunications.
Researchers will track how AI is deployed across these organisations and broader corporate Australia, then publish reports that set out best practice and inform a national policy response. The work will examine how AI changes day-to-day tasks, reshapes job satisfaction and alters how people see their own roles.
The study will also look at productivity gains and whether AI augments staff or automates away specific tasks. Project leaders argue most current deployments pair AI with people, rather than fully replacing them, so understanding how to redesign roles around the technology is critical.
AI anxiety is spiking globally, with more than 200 industry figures, academics and economists recently signing a “We Must Act Now” statement urging governments to move faster. That statement warns of large-scale job displacement alongside potential jumps in living standards, and calls for new incentives, guardrails and institutions to keep AI aligned with human interests.
Canberra has begun responding, with the Albanese government’s first AI and employment report finding roles most exposed to generative AI are growing more slowly, but there is still no clear evidence of the mass labour-market disruption many feared. University of Sydney leaders say grounded research on how AI is used inside organisations should help policymakers and educators prepare workers and students for an economy where AI is embedded in almost every job.
