Atlassian just sacked 150 people over video, calling it part of a “scary digital revolution.”
Commonwealth Bank is cutting jobs too, linking it to the “human cost of AI.”
And Microsoft has kindly handed us a list of 40 jobs most likely to be snatched by AI, as if we weren’t panicking enough already.
Everywhere you look, the message is the same – AI is coming for your job.
Cue the media fear‑mongering montage – sad employees with cardboard boxes, ominous music, and CEOs talking about “necessary transformation.”
Honestly? It makes my blood boil.
Because AI isn’t the villain here. Reckless, short‑sighted decisions are.
Yes, the world is changing. Yes, AI will transform industries. I’m not in denial.
But using it as an excuse for mass layoffs doesn’t just wreck lives – it fuels the exact self‑fulfilling prophecy the media keeps harping on about.
We create the fear. We feed the fear. And then we point at AI like it’s the problem.
It doesn’t have to be this way.
We need to build AI literacy to maintain relevance
Here’s what frustrates me most – we keep skipping the most obvious solution.
Instead of panicking or pulling the trigger on mass layoffs, companies should be building AI literacy. Teaching teams how to work with AI, not fear it. Helping them understand where it fits, where it fails, and how to use their human experience and expertise to make it shine.
Right now, only a fraction of Australian workers have any real AI training. Recent research from Melbourne Business School highlights that just 24% report having undertaken AI-related training or education.
“Over 60% report low knowledge of AI, and just under half believe they have the skills to use AI tools effectively. Australians also rank lowest globally in their interest in learning more about AI, with just 49% reporting moderate or high interest.”
By lagging behind in digital skills, people are left vulnerable to fear – and companies are more likely to make bad, short‑sighted decisions.
When employees know how to brief, guide, and sanity‑check AI, something amazing happens:
- Their productivity skyrockets without sacrificing quality.
- They see AI as a tool, not a threat.
- And businesses start thriving without losing the human edge their customers actually value.
This is exactly what I talk about in my book ‘AI‑Human Fusion’ – if you want to stay relevant in the AI era, don’t run from it. Learn it. Train with it. Lead with it.
Because sacking skilled humans in the hope that “the bots will take it from here” is simply lazy leadership.
Use human experience to thrive with AI
I want you to remember something important – AI works best when humans remain in the driver’s seat.
Atlassian and Commonwealth Bank could have taken another path. Instead of dumping skilled employees and calling it “transformation,” they could have retrained and upskilled their people to partner with AI. Because AI is brilliant at speed and pattern recognition, but it can’t replicate intuition, creativity, emotional intelligence, or context‑driven decision‑making – the stuff humans excel at.
And that’s the part too many leaders miss.
When you pair AI with human insight, you get the best of both worlds – lightning‑fast efficiency backed by smart, strategic thinking. AI can crunch the numbers, draft the first version, and surface patterns you might have missed. But only you can interpret the nuance, make the judgement call, and connect with clients in a way that actually builds trust.
Ultimately, if you strip out the humans, you strip out the magic.
Instead, you get bland, robotic output. You get mistakes that no algorithm can see coming. And worst of all, you lose the loyalty of the people – staff and customers alike – who wanted to believe your company valued more than just speed and savings.
The companies that thrive in this AI era will be the ones that double down on their human advantage. Not the ones who treat their employees like disposable widgets in the name of “progress.”
Understand AI’s limitations – some things should never be replaced
No one seems to talk about one important thing during these mass‑sacking announcements – AI is powerful, but it’s not infallible.
It can generate content, analyse data, and automate repetitive tasks faster than any human ever could. But it also hallucinates. (Just like it did while producing this article…by providing statistics that didn’t exist!)
If you fire your people and hand everything to AI, you’re trusting a tool that can’t spot its own mistakes. You’re removing the human judgement that keeps quality, ethics, and empathy intact. And you’re signalling to your customers that the human experience they valued no longer matters.
Think about that brutal layoff video doing the rounds online – employees learning they’d been replaced by AI in a cold, scripted message. Sure, the company might save a few salaries in the short term. But the damage to trust, morale, and brand reputation? That sh*t lingers.
How do we want our future to really look?
The companies racing to replace humans with AI might think they’re saving money, but they’re really gambling with their future. True progress comes from keeping humans in the loop – using AI to amplify your team’s capabilities, not erase them.
If we want businesses that thrive tomorrow, we need leaders who stop chasing shiny‑AI quick fixes and start building AI literacy, trust, and human‑first strategies today.
That’s exactly what I dive into in my book ‘AI‑Human Fusion’ – a practical guide to staying relevant, confident, and human in the AI era. If this article hit a nerve, grab your copy now from Amazon, Booktopia, or Dymocks and start leading the AI revolution the right way.
Feel free to also DM me about our training packages at HumanEdge AI Training – suitable for both one-on-ones and teams. Let’s increase that percentage of workers skilled in AI!
P.S. This article was written in collaboration between ChatGPT and my human brain.
