Staff at WiseTech have been waiting almost three months to be told if they’re among the 2,000 people the logistics software company is to cut due to advances in AI, with workers criticising the wait as stressful and “ridiculous”.
The comments come as its founder on Tuesday told investors an AI agent could learn a human’s job in just 15 minutes, according to the Australian Financial Review.
The Australian Stock Exchange-listed company announced in late February that it would lay off almost 30% of its workforce across 40 countries, with 2,000 of the 7,000 jobs set to go over the next 18 months.
Some areas would be hit harder than others, with product and development and customer service teams expected to be reduced by up to 50%, chief executive Zubin Appoo told an investor briefing in February.
“The era of manually writing code as the core act of engineering is over,” Appoo said.
WiseTech was one of a number of companies that earlier this year announced job cuts due to AI advancements. Unlike companies such as Block and Atlassian, which told affected staff at the time of announcement, WiseTech staff are still unsure about their future.
A WiseTech spokesperson said in April the company was consulting teams in a “structured and phased” manner.
“Because this is real organisational transformation, and not a cost-cutting exercise, it takes time to work through the process: redesigning our portfolios, designing the appropriate team structures, consulting with relevant stakeholders and then selecting the potentially impacted roles across our workforce,” the spokesperson said.
“At this stage, no final decisions have been made about individual roles.”
Quick Guide
Contact us about this story
Show
The best public interest journalism relies on first-hand accounts from people in the know.
If you have something to share on this subject, you can contact us confidentially using the following methods.
Secure Messaging in the Guardian app
The Guardian app has a tool to send tips about stories. Messages are end to end encrypted and concealed within the routine activity that every Guardian mobile app performs. This prevents an observer from knowing that you are communicating with us at all, let alone what is being said.
If you don’t already have the Guardian app, download it (iOS/Android) and go to the menu. Select ‘Secure Messaging’.
SecureDrop, instant messengers, email, telephone and post
If you can safely use the Tor network without being observed or monitored, you can send messages and documents to the Guardian via our SecureDrop platform.
Finally, our guide at theguardian.com/tips lists several ways to contact us securely, and discusses the pros and cons of each.
The process has left staff feeling uncertain.
“People are being told to keep delivering as usual, while also helping roll out the AI tools that are supposedly meant to…
Source link
Disclaimer
We strive to uphold the highest ethical standards in all of our reporting and coverage. We blogs.grocliq.com want to be transparent with our readers about any potential conflicts of interest that may arise in our work. It’s possible that some of the investors we feature may have connections to other businesses, including competitors or companies we write about. However, we want to assure our readers that this will not have any impact on the integrity or impartiality of our reporting. We are committed to delivering accurate, unbiased news and information to our audience, and we will continue to uphold our ethics and principles in all of our work. Thank you for your trust and support.
Website Upgradation is going on for any glitch kindly connect at [email protected]
