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Medium reported severity

Australia: Commonwealth Bank announced 45 call centre job cuts it attributed to an AI voice-bot, then reversed them as an error, ABC reports

In late July 2025 the Commonwealth Bank of Australia confirmed to the ABC that it was cutting 45 call centre jobs after rolling out an AI chatbot, and ABC reports the bank had briefed the Finance Sector Union that the cuts were due to AI. The union raised a dispute at the Fair Work Commission and said members found call volumes rose after the bot was introduced. On 21 August 2025 ABC reported that the bank called the decision an error, apologised to the affected employees, said it had not adequately considered all relevant business considerations, and offered them the choice to keep their roles, be redeployed or leave. One employee told Yahoo Finance she had helped train a messaging bot known as Bumblebee, was told in late July her role was redundant, judged the redeployment offer unworkable and accepted voluntary redundancy. The bank's quoted statements say AI made customer help faster; the union calls AI a cover for cost cutting. At the bank's annual general meeting in October 2025, AAP reports, that employee confronted executives in front of shareholders and the chairman said the bank had made a mistake. In October 2026 The Sydney Morning Herald reported that, pressed by a senator at hearings of a federal parliamentary committee on AI, chief executive Matt Comyn owned the error in her case and said he had apologised for it in the past.

AI system
Commonwealth Bank voice-bot
Commonwealth Bank of Australia
Occurred
1 Jul 2025 to 21 Aug 2025
Reported
29 July 2025
Event location
Australia
What the AI did
Relation unknown
Reported harm
Professional HarmPsychological Distress
Whose AI use
An institution’s AI use
Setting
Work
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 6 sources, 4 underlying accounts
7 claims: 7 reported. 8 open questions
People reported harmed
At least 45 people

AI system as recorded: Commonwealth Bank AI 'voice-bot' and customer messaging chatbot (one employee names a bot 'Bumblebee')

Reported harm

ABC reports the bank announced 45 call centre job cuts after rolling out an AI voice-bot, then called the decision an error and apologised, with the union saying the damage was already done to workers. One employee told Yahoo Finance she was devastated, judged the redeployment offer unworkable and accepted voluntary redundancy. The bank's chairman (October 2025) and chief executive (October 2026) later publicly acknowledged a mistake in her case.

What remains unknown

  • How many of the 45 employees chose to stay, be redeployed or leave is not reported.
  • The ABC pieces do not name the bot. Yahoo Finance names Bumblebee for one employee's messaging work and does not tie that bot to the voice-bot in ABC's August report.
  • Whether call volumes rose or fell after the bot launch is disputed between the bank and the union, and no call data was inspected.
  • The exact date the 45 employees were notified is stated only as late July 2025; ABC says the union was briefed the week before 29 July.
  • AAP says the offer to stay followed the Finance Sector Union's Fair Work Commission case; the commission's own record of that dispute and any hearing after 21 August 2025 were not inspected.
  • The notice the employee received is reported differently: Yahoo Finance says she was given one hour's notice to attend the July meeting, the senator said a day's notice, and the chief executive said he did not know.
  • The SMH article does not state the date of the chief executive's committee appearance, and no committee transcript was inspected.
  • No source describes an action by the bot toward the affected employees, so the person relation is unknown and the case rests on the bank's response to its adoption of AI.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The reported harm is the bank's response to its decision to adopt an AI voice-bot: ABC reports the bank confirmed on 29 July 2025 that it was cutting 45 call centre jobs after rolling out an AI chatbot, that the bank had told the union the cuts were due to AI, and on 21 August 2025 that the bank described its decision to axe 45 roles due to artificial intelligence as an error after finding the roles were not redundant despite the voice-bot. The bank's quoted statements say its AI investment made customer help faster and do not say AI selected the roles. No inspected source describes any output or action by the bot toward the affected employees; one employee says she wrote scripts for a messaging bot called Bumblebee and answered requests it could not handle. The bot's effect on call volumes is disputed between the bank and the union.

7 claims: 7 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The bank confirmed to the ABC on 29 July 2025 that it was cutting 45 jobs in its call centres after rolling out an AI chatbot, and ABC reports the bank had briefed the Finance Sector Union the week before that the cuts were due to AI.

Causal attribution. The confirmation is the bank's statement to the ABC. The AI attribution of the cuts rests on ABC's account of the bank's briefing to the union; the bank's quoted July statements refer to AI investment without saying AI caused the cuts. The Register relays the ABC reporting and adds no independent origin.

  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The Commonwealth Bank of Australia has confirmed to the ABC that the organisation was cutting 45 jobs in its call centres after rolling out an artificial intelligence chatbot to deal with customer inquiries.
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    marking the first time a bank had informed the union its job cuts were due to AI
  • theregister.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The Bank told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation about the sackings in late July
Reported As reported by ABC on 21 August 2025, the bank described its decision to axe the 45 roles due to AI as an error, said it had not adequately considered all relevant business considerations, apologised to the affected employees, and offered them the choice to continue in their roles, pursue redeployment or leave.

Causal attribution. Bank statements relayed by ABC and, for the choice offered, repeated by a bank spokesperson to Yahoo Finance. Both are the same party's own account of its conduct, so the claim stays at reported.

  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The Commonwealth Bank has backtracked on dozens of job cuts, describing its decision to axe 45 roles due to artificial intelligence as an "error".
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    CBA said it had apologised to the affected employees after finding the customer service roles were not redundant despite introducing an AI-powered "voice-bot".
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    CBA admitted it "did not adequately consider all relevant business considerations" when announcing the redundancies
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Affected staff have now been provided the choice to continue in their current roles, pursue redeployment within the bank or proceed with leaving CBA.
  • au.finance.yahoo.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    "We are currently supporting affected employees and have provided them with a choice regarding continuing in their current roles, pursuing redeployment within CBA or to proceed with leaving the organisation," a spokesperson for the bank told Yahoo Finance
Reported The Finance Sector Union raised a dispute at the Fair Work Commission, said its members found call volumes rose after the bot was introduced, called the reversal a major win and said the damage was already done to workers.

Causal attribution. Union statements relayed by ABC. The call-volume claim conflicts with the bank's July statement that AI made it easier and faster for customers to get help, and no call data was inspected.

  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    The Finance Sector Union has described the reversal as a "major win", after it raised a dispute at the Fair Work Commission.
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    It said its members found work actually spiked after the bot was introduced, despite the bank's claims it would reduce calls.
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    "Call volumes were rising, with management scrambling to offer overtime and even pulling team leaders onto the phones," its statement read.
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    the Finance Sector Union says the "damage is already done" to workers.
Reported One affected employee told Yahoo Finance she had developed scripts for a customer messaging bot known as Bumblebee and handled requests it could not, learned in late July that she was among the 45 workers being made redundant, was offered redeployment in the fraud and scams department where the only roles available were phone enquiries, felt she could not keep up with the change of pace, and accepted a voluntary redundancy.

Causal attribution. Single first-person account relayed by one outlet. Yahoo Finance does not say the messaging bot she helped train is the voice-bot named in ABC's August report, and her selection for redundancy is her own account.

Reported The bank said in July 2025 that its investment in technology including AI was making it easier and faster for customers to get help in its call centres and that it would prioritise redeployment and support for affected employees.

Causal attribution. Bank statements to the ABC, kept as the bank's position and contrary evidence to the union's account.

  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Our investment in technology, including AI, is making it easier and faster for customers to get help, especially in our call centres.
  • abc.net.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Our priority is to explore opportunities for redeployment and to support affected employees with care, dignity and respect throughout the process.
Reported AAP reported on 15 October 2025 that the employee who had taught the bank's Bumblebee chatbot, and who was among the 45 made redundant in late July, confronted the bank's executives in front of shareholders at its annual general meeting in Brisbane, saying not all the jobs offered back were the same jobs; chairman Paul O'Malley replied that the bank had made a mistake, and chief executive Matt Comyn said the bank sometimes had to make difficult decisions that affected employees.

Causal attribution. One AAP report (carried by The Border Mail) of statements made at the meeting by the employee, the chairman and the chief executive. The Bumblebee detail links her to the employee in the Yahoo Finance interview. The chairman's acknowledgement concerns how the process was handled for her and is the bank's own statement; it does not establish why she was selected.

  • bordermail.com.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    A Commonwealth Bank employee who trained an artificial intelligence chatbot that later took her job has confronted the bank's top executives in front of shareholders. ... was one of 45 customer service employees made redundant in late July before being offered a chance to stay with the bank following a Finance Sector Union case at the Fair Work Commission. ... "Not all the jobs that were offered back were the same job that these people were made redundant from," ... on Wednesday at the bank's annual general meeting in Brisbane. ... spending the past few years working on teaching its "Bumblebee" chatbot how to respond to customers. ... "We made a mistake," chairman Paul O'Malley said ... Chief executive Matt Comyn said the bank sometimes had to make difficult decisions that affected employees.
Reported The Sydney Morning Herald reported on 10 October 2026, in an article on hearings of the federal parliament's Joint Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, that Labor senator Tony Sheldon pressed chief executive Matt Comyn on the case of an employee whom, the senator said, the bank had tasked the previous year with training one of its chatbots and then given a day's notice that the chatbot would take over her job; Comyn said he did not know whether it was a day's notice but owned the error, saying he had apologised for it in the past and had no hesitation in doing so.

Causal attribution. The newspaper's account of an exchange between a senator and the chief executive. The account of the training task and the notice period is the senator's; the chief executive accepted the error but did not confirm the notice period. The SMH names the same employee as the AAP report.

  • smh.com.au(opens in new tab) supports · English
    Over two days in Sydney and then two in Melbourne, witness after witness described AI reshaping work for voice actors, bank staff and supermarket workers. ... Labor senator Tony Sheldon pressed Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn on the case of ... Last year, Sheldon said, the bank tasked her with training one of its chatbots, then gave her a day’s notice that the chatbot would take over her job. ... Comyn said he did not know whether it was a day’s notice, but owned the error. “I have apologised for that in the past; I have no hesitation in doing so,” he said.

Sources

6 sources inspected, from 4 underlying accounts. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Event countries: Australia. Affected-person countries: Australia. Court countries: Australia.

ABC News reports an Australian bank cutting jobs in its call centres and a dispute at the Fair Work Commission, and Yahoo Finance describes the interviewed employee as working from Queensland; event, affected persons and the tribunal are therefore in Australia.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-25: ABC News (29 July and 21 August 2025), The Register, Yahoo Finance Australia, an AAP report of the bank's October 2025 annual general meeting and The Sydney Morning Herald's October 2026 report of a parliamentary committee hearing were read on 2026-10-25. The harm is the bank's own response to adopting an AI voice-bot: 45 announced redundancies that the bank itself described as a decision made due to AI and later called an error, and its chairman and chief executive later acknowledged a mistake over one employee's case. Bank, union and senator statements are attributed and left at reported, the employee is not named, and the conflicting accounts of call volumes and of her notice period are preserved.

People described

Customer service employees in the bank's Australian call centres whose roles were declared redundant

People reported harmed in this case

At least 45 people

0 AI participants · 45 other people harmed

ABC's text reports 45 job cuts and its 21 August photo caption says the bank apologised to 45 employees who were made redundant before the reversal. Staff were then offered the choice to stay, be redeployed or leave, and how many lost employment is not reported. One employee separately reports accepting voluntary redundancy.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). Australia: Commonwealth Bank announced 45 call centre job cuts it attributed to an AI voice-bot, then reversed them as an error, ABC reports. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2025-australia-commonwealth-bank-45-call-centre-roles-cut-after-ai-voice-bot-then-reversed

BibTeX

@misc{2025_australia_commonwealth_bank_45_call_centre_roles_cut_after_ai_voice_bot_then_reversed,
  title = {Australia: Commonwealth Bank announced 45 call centre job cuts it attributed to an AI voice-bot, then reversed them as an error, ABC reports},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2025-australia-commonwealth-bank-45-call-centre-roles-cut-after-ai-voice-bot-then-reversed}
}

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