Australia's biggest bank cut staff for AI, then it backtracked – and it's one of many scrapping plans for automated customer support teams

Think AI can manage customer service for your company? By all means, give it a go, but perhaps wait a few months before starting redundancies.

That's the lesson learned the hard way by the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), which cut 45 jobs in customer service after rolling out an AI bot, only to have to rescind the redundancies weeks later.

The CBA rolled out an AI chatbot – reportedly called Bumblebee – to help manage with customer inquiries, saying the aim was to automate simple requests while freeing up staff to focus on more complicated matters "that need empathy and experience”.

After the bot was introduced, the CBA said at the end of July it would cut 45 customer service roles, insisting they weren't necessary due to a reduction in call volumes by 2,000 a week thanks to the AI tool.

The Finance Sector Union (FSU) said that marked the first time it had been informed of job cuts because of AI.

FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano criticized the move at the time, suggesting workers “want a tech-savvy bank, but they expect to be part of the change, not replaced by it”.

The AI job cuts didn't last

However, the AI bot wasn't delivering the reduction in calls predicted by the CBA. Off the back of information shared by members, the union disputed the CBA's claim that customer service calls were falling, raising a complaint with local regulator the Fair Work Commission.

"Members told us this was an outright lie and did not reflect the reality of what was happening in Direct Banking," the union said in a statement. "Call volumes were in fact increasing and CBA was scrambling to manage the situation by offering staff overtime and directing Team Leaders to answer calls."

Just weeks later, the CBA rescinded the job cuts and apologized to the 45 customer service staff impacted by the now cancelled redundancies.

The union called the "backflip" a "massive win" but noted that the employees still had to "endure the stress and worry of facing redundancy”. The union revealed it was also gathering information about offshoring or AI-related job losses.

One staffer has opted not to return. After working for CBA for 25 years, Kathryn Sullivan helped test responses to the chatbot – only to be included in the ensuing redundancies.

"Inadvertently, I was training a chatbot that took my job," she said. Sullivan called for the government to "make sure there are adequate regulations to protect people’s jobs, people’s rights."

While the CBA "backflipped" on the job cuts, that isn't stopping the bank from signing a multiyear partnership with OpenAI. The CBA said the aim is to boost scam and fraud prevention as well as offer personalized services to customers.

"We will continue to invest in our people and their AI proficiency so they can better support our customers, while building their skills and experience,” said CBA CEO Matt Comyn.

Enterprises are coming to regret AI job cuts

This isn’t the first instance of businesses issuing a u-turn on AI-related job losses over the last two years. Klarna, for example, boasted it had been able to reduce its workforce significantly as a result of its AI strategy.

The buy now, pay later giant claimed AI was capable of doing the work of around 700 customer agents. However, in recent months the company has scaled back its plans on this front.

Earlier this year, CEO Sebastian Siemiatkowski said Klarna plans to bring on more customer service agents, but not fully reverse its AI strategy. Instead, the chief exec envisages a setup where consumers can opt for basic, AI-powered customer support options, or choose a premium service where human staff are available.

Klarna and the CBA aren’t alone on backtracking, either. Research in May 2025 found that half of companies intended to abandon plans to replace customer support workers with AI by 2027.

Notably, a third of UK tech leaders admit they’d already cut staff in favor of the technology, but have since come to regret these redundancies.

More than half (55%) of those who cut staff admit they acted too hastily, and are now facing acute internal talent shortages.

Make sure to follow ITPro on Google News to keep tabs on all our latest news, analysis, and reviews.

MORE FROM ITPRO

• This Stanford study shows AI is starting to take jobs
• Big tech promised developers productivity gains with AI tools – now they’re being rendered obsolete
• August rundown: Are AI job losses a fantasy?