Bank admits ‘mistake’ over worker who lost job to AI
Derek Rose |
A Commonwealth Bank employee who trained an artificial intelligence chatbot that later took her job has confronted the bank’s top executives in front of shareholders.
Kathryn Sullivan was one of 45 customer service employees made redundant in late July before being offered a chance to stay with the bank following a Finance Sector Union case at the Fair Work Commission.
“Not all the jobs that were offered back were the same job that these people were made redundant from,” Ms Sullivan said on Wednesday at the bank’s annual general meeting in Brisbane.
“I just wanted to know what specific measures, if any, you have in place now to safeguard current staff from having their roles displaced by AI, and also offshoring,” she said.
The 63-year-old has said previously she was made redundant after 25 years with the bank, including spending the past few years working on teaching its “Bumblebee” chatbot how to respond to customers.
She expected to be redeployed once her work developing scripts and testing responses was finished, but was instead told her services were no longer required.
“We made a mistake,” chairman Paul O’Malley said, acknowledging how difficult the process had been for Ms Sullivan.
“We didn’t adequately consider all the relevant business considerations. And I think that’s been communicated.”
Chief executive Matt Comyn said the bank sometimes had to make difficult decisions that affected employees.
“I think the way we engage with employees, how we try to develop and retain as many of those skills as we can, is really important and that’s certainly a priority for us going forward,” he said.
Australia’s biggest company by market capitalisation, CBA posted a record profit of $10.1 billion in the year to June 30, a figure Mr Comyn previously said could have been higher if it had better leveraged the possibilities from AI.
Mr O’Malley defended the bank’s use of offshore workers in India in response to another question, saying the country was home to an incredible pool of talent and the company needed to adapt to the times.
“There’s been a dramatic shift in how customers engage with us and how we have to engage with customers,” he said.
“Fifteen years ago … we didn’t do everything on our phones.”
Customers once engaged with the bank in branches during traditional opening hours, but now expected staff to be available around the clock, Mr O’Malley said.
“So it actually makes sense to have people operating in different time zones to support that 24/7 service for our customers,” he said.
“Better customer engagement does require different ways of thinking.”
Mr Comyn said CBA had more than 6800 employees in India, including 3000 staff working to combat financial crimes, and 37,000 employees in Australia.
“It’s not that we aren’t looking in Australia and we are continuing to hire and we are bringing capability,” he said.
The bank has also opened a tech hub in Seattle, where it sends a rotating group of about 200 Australian staff each year to increase their skills.
It has also partnered with Griffith University and the University of South Australia to develop local skills.
Mr O’Malley also signalled at the meeting that Mr Comyn was likely to be CBA’s chief executive for at least another three years.
Mr O’Malley was re-elected as chairman of CBA for another three-year term on Wednesday, and said finding a successor to Mr Comyn, who has held the role since 2018, would be a task for the bank’s next chairman.
AAP
