Qantas cuts 850 jobs, shifts work to India as part of AI overhaul
The airline signed a multi-year deal with Accenture to automate back-office work, moving some roles to India's outsourcing hub as Australian unions cry foul.
What happened: Qantas announced it will cut 850 jobs in Australia and shift some back-office work to India, under a new multi-year deal with consulting firm Accenture. The agreement is meant to modernise Qantas's finance, procurement, HR and marketing systems using AI and updated technology. CEO Vanessa Hudson said the airline will consult affected staff and unions before finalising anything, with changes starting by mid-2026.
Why it matters: This is the third major Australian corporate layoff announced in three weeks, after Canva (1,200 roles) and National Australia Bank (2,500 roles). Together the three companies have put roughly 4,550 jobs on the line in a single month. It is landing as Australian unemployment sits at its highest in nearly five years and living costs keep climbing, meaning displaced workers are entering an already tightening job market.
How it works, plainly: Qantas is not just adopting AI tools internally, it is handing entire functions to Accenture, which will run some of that work through its large India-based team. The pitch is that AI and automation can handle routine finance, HR and procurement tasks more cheaply at scale, so the human roles doing that work in Australia become redundant or get moved offshore to where Accenture already has staff.
The rollout: Qantas says the cuts are not a judgement on staff performance but a response to how fast corporate technology is changing. The Australian Services Union says this breaks an earlier Qantas assurance that no jobs would move offshore, and argues workers should not absorb the cost of the company's tech transition. Qantas is simultaneously juggling higher jet fuel prices, tied partly to the Iran conflict, while still reporting resilient customer demand.