Exclusive: Atlassian says Australian employees axed in mass redundancies, denies AI is replacing jobs

Major Australian technology firm Atlassian has confirmed that Australian staff were impacted by its major job cuts this week, but denied that jobs were being replaced by AI. Yesterday (30 July), Atlassian CEO and co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes notified staff through a pre-recorded video that jobs were being terminated and that staff would need to wait 15 minutes to receive an email determining their future at the company. Now, an Atlassian spokesperson has said that the decision to release 150 staff affected Australian workers. "We have made this decision after implementing improvements to the customer experience across our platform and tools, resulting in a significant reduction in support needs," the company said. "While we're proud of this momentum, it leaves us with more capacity than needed to deliver strong customer support. [The] changes impact 150 teammates across the US, Australia, India, Germany, Canada, and the UK." The company reiterated that its growth led to the company outgrowing the needs of its customer support team. However, Atlassian addressed media claims that the jobs would be replaced by AI, saying that while it has empowered its customer service offering with AI, the jobs are not going to be replaced by the technology. "Customers are … able to self-service through the embedding of AI in our contact form, but it's primarily because our customers need less help with the product. These roles are not being replaced by AI," it said.

Major Australian technology firm Atlassian has confirmed that Australian staff were impacted by its major job cuts this week, but denied that jobs were being replaced by AI.