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Kathryn lost her banking job to a chatbot she helped train. She just confronted her CBA bosses
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Kathryn lost her banking job to a chatbot she helped train. She just confronted her CBA bosses

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A Commonwealth Bank employee who trained an artificial intelligence chatbot that later took over her job has confronted the bank’s top executives in front of shareholders.
Kathryn Sullivan was one of 45 customer service staff whose positions were made redundant at the end of July before being given the chance to stay at the bank after the Finance Sector Union took a case to the Fair Work Commission.
“Not all the jobs that came back were the same jobs where these people were made redundant,” Sullivan said at the bank’s annual general meeting at the Gabba in Brisbane on Wednesday.

“I just wanted to know what specific measures you have now put in place to prevent their role from being displaced by AI and also by offshoring,” she says.

The 63-year-old said she was made redundant after 25 years at the bank, Australia’s most valuable listed company, and had spent the past few years teaching the ‘Bumblebee’ chatbot how to respond to customers.
She expected to be redeployed once her work developing scripts and testing responses was complete, but instead she was told her services were no longer needed.
“We made a mistake,” Commonwealth Bank chairman Paul O’Malley said, acknowledging how difficult the process had been for Sullivan.
“We did not sufficiently take into account all relevant business considerations. And I think that has been communicated.”
CEO Matt Comyn added that the bank sometimes had to make difficult decisions that impacted employees.

“I think the way we interact with employees, how we try to develop and retain as many of these skills as possible, is very important, and that is certainly a priority for us going forward,” Comyn said.

Commonwealth Bank CEO and Managing Director Matt Comyn said the bank sometimes had to make difficult decisions that impacted employees. Source: MONKEY / Darren England

The bank made a record profit of $10.1 billion in the year to June 30, a figure Comyn previously said could have been higher if it had better leveraged the capabilities of AI.

O’Malley also defended the bank’s use of offshore workers in India in response to another question. He said the country is home to an incredible amount of talent and the company must adapt to the times.
“There has been a dramatic shift in how customers interact with us and how we should interact with customers,” he said.

“Fifteen years ago… we didn’t do everything on our phones.”

While customers used to interact with the bank during traditional branch hours, they now expected staff to be available 24 hours a day, O’Malley said.
“So it actually makes sense for people to operate in different time zones to support that 24/7 service for our customers,” he said.
“Better customer engagement requires a different way of thinking.”
Comyn said CBA has just over 6,800 employees in India, including 3,000 employees dedicated to combating financial crimes, and 37,000 employees in Australia.
“It’s not that we’re not looking in Australia and continuing to hire people and bring in capacity,” he said.
The bank has also opened a technology hub in Seattle, where it sends a rotating group of about 200 Australian employees each year to grow their skills.
It also works with Griffith University and the University of South Australia to develop local skills.

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