Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming jobs at a pace not seen since the rise of the internet, stirring anxiety across Australia’s workforce about who will be replaced — and who might benefit.
Throughout the past three decades, the internet has reshaped the way Australians work. Before that, offices transitioned from typewriters to computers, and earlier still came the transformative arrival of electricity.
Every technological leap brought unease, and the rapid rise of AI is now prompting a fresh wave of concern.
SBS News spoke to cyber and workforce experts about why AI is generating so much caution — and what potential it could unlock for Australian workers.
The emergence of artificial intelligence
Until a few years ago, AI was a concept that few people had extensive knowledge of beyond what the 1984 film Terminator had presented.
However, since the launch of ChatGPT (GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer) in late 2022, AI has suddenly become a reality.
Chatbots now appear routinely on websites, search engines are increasingly driven by AI, and tasks once completed manually are being automated.
Less than two years ago, the idea of an Australian company hiring an “AI prompter” seemed novel. Today, it is common.
David Tuffley, a senior lecturer in applied ethics and cybersecurity at Griffith University, explained that when we talk about AI in the workforce, “we are talking about large language models like ChatGPT”.
“There’s a bunch of them, and they are basically really clever prediction engines, they just basically deduce what it is you want them or tell them to do,” he told SBS News.
Tuffley said businesses had started automating standard operating processes that had previously been done manually, using agentic AI.
“That is using AI as an agent to do things, involves the cobbling together, a bit like Lego, of individual components of AI so that you get a workflow happening, and it’s clever enough to make expert judgement depending on circumstances,” he said.
So, which workers could be impacted by AI?
Experts say the impact of AI on jobs is complex, with both potential disruptions and opportunities.
New research from the Australian HR Institute (AHRI) paints a nuanced picture. According to the research, entry-level roles in the Australian workforce have increased in the short term due to AI.
AHRI CEO Sarah McCann-Bartlett said the institute’s latest Australian Work Outlook for the December 2025 quarter found four in 10 organisations (41 per cent) reported an increase in entry-level roles due to AI, compared with just 19 per cent reporting a decline.
She said this trend aligns with Jobs and Skills Australia’s recent Generative AI Capacity Study and a Technology Council of Australia report, both of which indicate AI is more likely to augment jobs than replace them.
“The survey data suggest that the future trajectory of the Australian jobs market is nuanced and uncertain,” McCann-Bartlett said.