Saturday, September 6, 2025 -An Austrialian Bank worker has revealed she was
sacked after 25 years, months after unknowingly training AI to do her
job.
Bank teller Kathryn Sullivan, 63, said she was entirely
unaware she was helping a chatbot take over her role before she was made
redundant in July, ending her long career with the bank.
She said she supported new technologies that improved
customer service, but was still sacked.
'I was completely shell-shocked, alongside my colleague,'
she said. 'We just feel like we were nothing, we were a number.'
Ms Sullivan said Commonwealth Bank failed to communicate
with her for more than a week after she was made redundant.
'They ghosted me for eight business days before they
answered any of my questions,' she added.
Her final duties included scripting and testing chatbot
responses for CBA's Bumblebee AI, and when the bot was trialled with real
customers, she stepped in whenever it failed to answer.
'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.'
'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.'
CBA later admitted it had made a mistake, conceding that
calls from customers spiked after the sackings, showing AI could not fully
replace staff.
The bank was then forced to reverse its decision and offered
staff their jobs back, but Sullivan chose redundancy, saying the role she was
offered was different to her original one and offered no real security.
A Commonwealth Bank spokesman acknowledged the bank had
mishandled the process.
He said the bank's initial assessment that 45 roles were not
required 'did not adequately consider all relevant business considerations and
because of this error, the roles were not redundant.'
He added: 'We have apologised to the employees concerned and
acknowledge we should have been more thorough in our assessment of the roles
required.
'We are currently supporting affected employees and have
provided them with choice regarding continuing in their current roles, pursuing
redeployment within CBA or to proceed with leaving the organisation.
'We are also reviewing our internal processes to improve our
approach going forward.'
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