The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has been ordered to bring back 45 employees it had let go in favor of an AI chatbot. This decision has been hailed as a significant victory by a financial services union, serving as a cautionary tale about the potential misuse of technology.
Initially, the bank claimed that the new AI chatbot had decreased call volumes by 2,000 per week, which justified the layoffs.
However, this claim was proven false, with workers describing it as a blatant lie. In reality, call volumes had been rising when the layoffs occurred, leading the bank to scramble for solutions, including offering overtime and having management assist in answering calls.
To reveal the truth, the Financial Services Union took the issue to a fair work tribunal. They accused the bank of not adequately explaining why the workers’ jobs were deemed redundant.
Furthermore, the union suggested that the bank was hiring for similar positions in India, implying that the bank may have used the chatbot as a cover for outsourcing jobs.
After the tribunal’s intervention, the Commonwealth Bank admitted that the positions were not actually redundant and has since apologized to the affected employees.
Those employees now have the option to return to their jobs or accept severance payments. A spokesperson for the bank acknowledged the mistake and stated that they should have conducted a more thorough assessment of the necessary roles.
The term “AI” generally refers to technologies like chatbots and image generators that utilize large language models, and this industry is reportedly worth trillions of dollars.
However, recent scrutiny has revealed that the economic impact of AI on creative jobs it can replace, such as caricaturists at malls or editorial teams at magazines, does not seem to be substantial.
Studies have indicated that a staggering 95% of AI pilot projects have failed to produce significant revenue, raising questions about the true benefits of such technologies.
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