The ‘race to the bottom’ on AI job cuts has already started

April 9, 2026 — 3:50pm

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The board of Bendigo Bank has become the latest to get on the AI tools and sharpen its redundancy pencil.

Unions are stretched thin resisting the inevitable wave of job cuts hitting all business sectors, and are left to valiantly condemn the AI productivity push.

The Financial Services Union hit back at Bendigo Bank’s move on Thursday, calling it “a dramatic and dangerous escalation in the fight to protect Australian jobs from being wiped out by AI”.

But banks have been near the forefront of those expanding the use of artificial intelligence to improve productivity and reduce costs, and the union movement is powerless to put that genie back in the bottle.

Technology companies have been first in line to reimagine – or defend – their businesses using AI. We have seen companies such as WiseTech and Atlassian cut swaths through their workforces, leaving customer service representatives and engineers adrift in the jobs market.

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Elizabeth........

© The Sydney Morning Herald