Telecommunications giant Telstra and consulting firm Accenture are proposing to slash hundreds of roles from their data and AI joint venture, with some work to be offshored to India.
Telstra’s $700 million joint venture, one of the biggest AI investments by an Australian company to date, said on Tuesday it proposed to cut 209 jobs.
The venture, announced in January last year, is aimed at rolling out AI capabilities across Telstra to improve its business processes, chief executive Vicki Brady saying at the time it would build specialised AI tools for its teams to “work smarter and faster”.
A spokesperson for the joint venture confirmed on Tuesday evening that it would be reducing roles “where work is no longer needed” and moving some of its work to the joint venture team in India which, they said, had advanced AI expertise and a specialist hub that could deliver Telstra’s data and AI roadmap more quickly.
“We anticipate that over time, this would result in improved cost efficiencies and bring an enhanced experience to Telstra’s customers,” the spokesperson said.
Some redeployment opportunities, including roles requiring AI and data skill-sets, would be offered by Accenture, and the joint venture would support affected team members to find new roles at either company where possible if the proposal goes ahead, they said.
Asked about whether the affected jobs would be replaced by AI, the joint venture spokesperson said that was not currently being proposed.
“We are not proposing that any roles be replaced by AI today,” they said. “Though, through our joint venture, we’ll be able to apply new technology, including AI, to simplify our tools and services so we can deliver faster, more intuitive experiences for customers.”
The latest job cuts, details of which were leaked to The Aussie Corporate, come after the company announced plans in 2024 to trim back up to 2800 workers, or about 10 per cent of its workforce.
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.
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.
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Millie Muroi is the economics writer at The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. She was formerly an economics correspondent based in Canberra’s Press Gallery and the banking writer based in Sydney.Connect via X or email.