‘Your craft is obsolete’: WiseTech staff in limbo as AI touted as better than humans

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. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email 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. …