A year after reversing 45 AI-linked job cuts, Commonwealth Bank won't promise AI won't take more

Previously

In July 2025, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) cut 45 customer service roles after launching an AI voice bot. In August, it reversed the cuts, calling them an "error." The union said calls had risen after the bot went live (Part 1).

October 2026 — CBA has kept cutting jobs while expanding AI in customer service. Here's what changed since Part 1 (August 2025), what it cost, and what went wrong.

Cost and outcome (as of October 2026)

Jobs reduced since January 2026: more than 1,000, per the Finance Sector Union. (FSU)
September round: 232 jobs affected, 172 expected to be made redundant, per the union. (FSU)
Staff redeployed: 500 of nearly 1,000 affected over the year. (news.com.au)
Retraining: an A$90 million, three-year Future Workforce Program; AI training for more than 30,000 employees. (CBA)
AI service platform: more than two million conversations a month; about 84.6% of self-service messaging resolved end-to-end in May 2026, per Microsoft. (Microsoft)
Cost of the platform: not disclosed.

February: training money and tech cuts

On Feb. 24, CBA announced an A$90 million, three-year Future Workforce Program, including a Grow Your Career portal for staff. The bank said it had already given AI-focused training to more than 30,000 employees. CEO Matt Comyn said the aim was "transparency and opportunity, replacing a perception of uncertainty."

Two days later, Information Age's Tom Williams reported the FSU's count of about 300 jobs cut, mostly in technology. A CBA spokesperson said the bank had "reduced some standalone support and coordination roles" and that "AI is changing how some tasks are performed but it is not the driver of these role changes." Information Age framed the cuts as part of "workforce transformations spurred by AI." FSU national secretary Julia Angrisano called the cuts "totally unacceptable" after an A$5.4 billion half-year profit.

July: the platform

On Jul. 9, Microsoft published an account of the platform it built with CBA. It said the system handles more than two million conversations a month across voice and messaging, and that "In May 2026, approximately 84.6% of self-service messaging interactions were resolved end-to-end in the messaging channel."

Microsoft said the platform uses a central AI orchestration agent that reads what a customer wants and routes it to another AI tool or a human specialist. A regulated journey such as a fraud dispute follows a fixed path with guardrails, and conversations flagged as sensitive go to a person. The contact center the platform supports handles 50,000 phone calls a day, Microsoft said (Microsoft).

September and October: the count and the AGM

On Sept. 23, the FSU said 232 jobs were affected, with 172 expected to be made redundant, hitting technology workers in Sydney hardest. It said cuts since January now totaled more than 1,000, and that CBA had closed or planned to close 28 metropolitan branches.

At the Oct. 14 annual general meeting, chair Paul O'Malley faced questions about nearly 1,000 staff affected over the year, 500 of whom were redeployed, news.com.au's Cameron Micallef reported. "There's no ability to give a blanket commitment to any individual or to the nation," O'Malley said. Comyn said: "We believe AI could be the most significant technology shift we have seen."

What's changed

In 2025, CBA withdrew 45 cuts tied to a voice bot. In 2026, its job reductions are larger, its AI service platform handles millions of conversations, and the bank says AI wasn't the driver of February's cuts. Its chair won't rule out more.

What went wrong

The numbers don't line up. The union counts more than 1,000 jobs reduced since January; the AGM figure was nearly 1,000 affected over the year.
AI's role is unclear. The bank says AI wasn't the driver in February, while Information Age framed the cuts as AI-linked.
Some roles may have moved offshore. The union alleges some cut technology roles were later advertised through CBA's India-based subsidiary (Information Age, Jul. 30).
What we don't know yet: how many roles AI replaced directly, the platform's cost, and how many cut roles moved to CBA India.

Our follow-up question for CBA

How many of the roles cut in 2026 were replaced by AI handling the work, and how many were later advertised through CBA India?

Sources

Commonwealth Bank of Australia, “Commonwealth Bank's $90m plan for AI-ready workforce,” Feb. 24, 2026. commbank.com.au
Tom Williams, Information Age (ACS), “WiseTech axes 2,000 jobs, CBA cuts hundreds as AI ramps,” Feb. 26, 2026. ia.acs.org.au
Microsoft Source Asia, “How Commonwealth Bank and Microsoft are reimagining the future of customer service,” Jul. 9, 2026. news.microsoft.com
Denham Sadler, Information Age (ACS), “AI drives fresh CommBank job cuts,” Jul. 30, 2026. ia.acs.org.au
Finance Sector Union, “Further CBA job cuts highlight the need for a stronger Agreement,” Sept. 23, 2026. fsunion.org.au
Cameron Micallef, news.com.au, “Commonwealth Bank refuses to guarantee jobs against AI as 1000 workers axed,” Oct. 14, 2026. news.com.au
Earlier in this series: Part 1. /case/cba-voice-bot-reversal-45-roles

Disclosure: [not in copy] Editor placeholder