Telecommunications giant Telstra is proposing to slash hundreds of roles from its AI joint venture with consulting firm Accenture with some work to be offshored to India.
On Tuesday, the firm proposed to cut 209 jobs from the $700 million joint venture, one of the biggest AI investments by a company to date.
The venture, announced in January last year, is aimed at rolling out AI capabilities across Telstra to improve its business processes, with chief executive Vicki Brady saying at the time it would build specialised AI tools for its teams to โwork smarter and fasterโ.
The latest job cuts come after the company announced plans in 2024 to trim back up to 2800 workers, or about 10 per cent of its workforce.
Some redeployment opportunities, including roles requiring AI and data skill-sets, will be offered by Accenture, and affected roles would not be replaced by AI.
In its full-year results last year, the telco giant posted bumper profits after cutting operating expenses by 6 per cent. Telstra will report its half-yearly results on Thursday, February 19.
A raft of Australian companies have been culling roles and offshoring work to countries with cheaper labour as they look to trim costs.
Big four consulting firm KPMG last week announced its proposal to slash 200 executive assistant roles and offshore work to the Philippines, while banking giants NAB and CBA have also come under fire for proposals to cut hundreds of jobs and shift them to India.
Millie Muroi is the economics writer at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She was formerly an economics correspondent based in Canberraโs Press Gallery and the banking writer based in Sydney.Connect via X or email.
