Big employers are cutting jobs as AI changes the workplace. For Australians still working towards retirement, and parents watching their children build careers, the question is becoming personal.

You spend years getting good at your job, becoming the person others turn to when something goes wrong. You know the customers, remember why a particular process exists and can spot a problem before it becomes an expensive one.

Then an email arrives announcing a restructure, and suddenly you are wondering how much any of that counts.

For someone in their late 50s or 60s, losing a job can mean postponing retirement or finding another way to pay the mortgage. Starting again might be possible, but starting again on the same salary is another matter.

The recent announcements from some of Australia’s best-known employers have given those concerns considerable weight.

Qantas expects around 850 roles to be affected over coming years through its partnership with Accenture, with some services moving mostly to teams in India and further automation and AI to follow. Finance, procurement and marketing are among the first areas affected.

NAB plans to cut up to 2,500 roles by mid-2027, while Canva’s restructure affects around 1,270 positions, including some facing relocation. These are announced changes, rather than a tally of jobs already lost.

It would be easy to put them all under an “AI jobs bloodbath” headline. The explanations, however, are more complicated. Canva has explicitly denied using AI to do departing employees’ work. NAB cited economic pressures as well as technological change, while David Jones’ troubles reflect longstanding pressures on its retail business.

That leaves workers trying to understand how much of their own job could change, and whether their employer will still need the same number of people.

Which jobs are most exposed?

Jobs and Skills Australia’s national study finds generative AI is more likely to help people do their work than replace them altogether. Routine tasks have greater potential for automation, although the outcome depends on how employers use the technology.

A Reserve Bank staff analysis published on November 9 found limited evidence of significant AI disruption across Australia’s labour market so far. Its latest complete occupation data ends in February 2026, however, so it cannot explain the latest corporate announcements.

These six areas deserve attention and include work already targeted by employers and occupations identified in research as exposed to change, rather than a list of jobs certain to disappear.

1. Administration, data entry and reception

Clerical occupations have the highest exposure to generative AI in the International Labour Organization’s updated global assessment.

Think of the time spent transferring information between systems, answering routine correspondence or preparing standard documents. If those tasks take less time, an employer could decide against replacing someone who leaves, or give the remaining team a larger workload.

But anyone who has worked with a good administrator knows how much happens beyond the position description. They might be the person who sorts out a missing order or helps an upset customer reach someone who can solve their problem.

The risk is that those responsibilities receive less attention than the routine work a computer can perform.

2. Bookkeeping and accounts administration

Accounting clerks and bookkeepers feature in Jobs and Skills Australia’s modelling of occupations that could have lower employment by 2050 than its baseline projections. That is a long-term scenario, rather than a forecast of imminent redundancies.

For people working in accounts, much may depend on the balance between processing information and investigating it.

Preparing a routine report is different from noticing that something does not add up, then knowing enough about the business to work out why. As software handles more processing, employers may change the duties they expect each person to cover.

3. Call centres and customer support

Call and contact centre workers are among the highly exposed occupations contributing to falling job advertisements identified in the RBA staff analysis. The research does not establish that AI caused the decline.

Customer service jobs can be affected by automated enquiries as well as offshore outsourcing. For the person losing their position, either can have the same immediate consequence, even though the business decisions are different.

There is also a question about what happens to the staff who remain. If straightforward enquiries are automated, more of their day could be spent handling difficult complaints.

Anyone who has tried to resolve a problem through an automated service will understand why having a capable person available still is important.

4. Marketing, content and design

The ILO finds that improvements in image, voice and video generation have increased exposure in media and web-related occupations.

Drafting product descriptions or producing several versions of an advertisement could take less time. That may change how much work businesses commission from freelancers, as well as how many people they recruit.

Canva shows why the distinction between changing work and replacing workers matters. The company says AI is influencing the products it builds, while denying that it will take over the work of employees who are leaving.

5. Software development and systems analysis

Software programmers and ICT business and systems analysts also appear in the RBA analysis of declining advertisements among highly exposed occupations.

For parents whose children have pursued technology careers, that may feel unsettling. These were qualifications many families associated with opportunity.

As coding tools improve, an important question is whether employers will hire fewer beginners. If some of the work traditionally given to junior employees is automated, how will they gain the experience needed for more demanding positions?

Businesses will still need people who understand what a system should achieve and can check whether it works. The uncertainty is how future teams will be staffed, and where newcomers will get their start.

6. Corporate management and support functions

NAB has identified corporate functions for reductions and says it has made deeper changes to senior management positions. Qantas is reorganising corporate services through its Accenture partnership.

These changes can involve outsourcing, removing overlapping responsibilities or giving existing duties to fewer people. AI may be part of the explanation, but the announcement of a restructure does not establish that software is replacing every affected employee.

For workers, the immediate questions are practical: where is their work going, and is there another role for them within the business?

Starting again takes more than encouragement

Telling someone approaching retirement to retrain is easy. Making it possible means giving them time to learn and a realistic prospect of employment afterwards.

An employee considering a course needs to know whether it leads to an available position or simply another application. Someone offered redeployment needs to understand whether the pay and hours will still cover the household bills.

For younger workers, the concern may be getting that first opportunity and for their parents, it may be keeping an income long enough to retire.

Both deserve more than a reassuring sentence in a company announcement. They need to know what work will be available, and whether there will be a place for them.