Australian Bank fires employee after 25 years, replaces her with AI she helped train

An Austrialian  Bank worker has revealed she was sacked after 25 years, months after unknowingly training AI to do her job.

Bank teller Kathryn Sullivan, 63, said she was entirely unaware she was helping a chatbot take over her role before she was made redundant in July, ending her long career with the bank.

She said she supported new technologies that improved customer service, but was still sacked.

‘I was completely shell-shocked, alongside my colleague,’ she said. ‘We just feel like we were nothing, we were a number.’

Ms Sullivan said Commonwealth Bank failed to communicate with her for more than a week after she was made redundant. 

‘They ghosted me for eight business days before they answered any of my questions,’ she added.

Her final duties included scripting and testing chatbot responses for CBA’s Bumblebee AI, and when the bot was trialled with real customers, she stepped in whenever it failed to answer.

‘We knew that messaging would eventually be sent offshore, but never in my wildest dream did I expect to be made redundant after 25 years with the company,’ she said.

‘Inadvertently, I was training a chatbot that took my job.’

‘While I embrace the use of AI and I can see a purpose for it in the workplace and outside, I believe there needs to be some sort of regulation to prevent copyright (infringements) … or replacing humans.’

CBA later admitted it had made a mistake, conceding that calls from customers spiked after the sackings, showing AI could not fully replace staff.

The bank was then forced to reverse its decision and offered staff their jobs back, but Sullivan chose redundancy, saying the role she was offered was different to her original one and offered no real security.

A Commonwealth Bank spokesman acknowledged the bank had mishandled the process. 

He said the bank’s initial assessment that 45 roles were not required ‘did not adequately consider all relevant business considerations and because of this error, the roles were not redundant.’ 

He added: ‘We have apologised to the employees concerned and acknowledge we should have been more thorough in our assessment of the roles required. 

‘We are currently supporting affected employees and have provided them with choice regarding continuing in their current roles, pursuing redeployment within CBA or to proceed with leaving the organisation.

‘We are also reviewing our internal processes to improve our approach going forward.’