Australian Woman Fired From Bank After 25 Years, Replaced By AI Chatbot She Trained

Last Updated:September 04, 2025, 23:41 IST

A woman working at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) was fired from her job after 25 years and replaced by the AI chatbot she had helped train.

The case highlighted the impact of AI replacing people's jobs. (File Photo)

A woman working at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), one of the country’s biggest banks, was fired from her job after 25 years and replaced by an artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot that she had herself helped train.

According to a report by news.com.au, Kathryn Sullivan and 44 others were part of the first job cuts at the bank in July, who trained the AI chatbots that they were eventually told would replace them.

The Commonwealth Bank revealed in July that it would make the roles in its customer call centres redundant due to a new AI chatbot system it had introduced. Sullivan revealed in an AI symposium in Canberra that she had no idea that developing scripts and testing responses for the chatbot Bumblebee would eventually result in her termination.

“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."

Sullivan said she was “shocked" when she had expected to be redeployed after her role training the bot was finished, but instead she was let go from the company, and called for adequate regulations to protect people’s jobs.

“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," she said.

“You still need the human touch," she said, saying the bank’s decision to terminate her and her colleagues left them feeling “like we were nothing, we were a number."

Luckily for the employees, the bank reversed its decision to cut dozens of jobs last month after the Financial Sector Union raised the matter to the Fair Work Commission, saying it still needs humans to meet its growing workloads.

The bank said initially the chatbots reduced calls to the centre by 2,000 per week, but then conceded that the calls had increased after the job cuts. The bank said it did not adequately consider all relevant business considerations.

Aveek Banerjee

Aveek Banerjee is a Senior Sub Editor at News18. Based in Noida with a Master's in Global Studies, Aveek has more than three years of experience in digital media and news curation, specialising in international...Read More

Aveek Banerjee is a Senior Sub Editor at News18. Based in Noida with a Master's in Global Studies, Aveek has more than three years of experience in digital media and news curation, specialising in international...

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