Qantas’s plan to move work to Accenture, with around 850 roles expected to be affected, has drawn accusations of “AI washing” from unions and a Greens senator, Reuters reported on 11 November. The airline’s own release of 10 November says the services will be “delivered mostly by its teams in India and some in Australia, and in time be transformed further with automation and AI”.
By our arithmetic, 850 roles are about 3.0% of the 28,000-strong Australian workforce the release cites. The same release says more than 4,400 new operational roles have been created since 2023, about 5.2 times the roles now in scope, also by our arithmetic.
Business Pill · Bundle of Tasks Explained
An evergreen Business Engineer explainer on why a job is a bundle of many small tasks, and why automating some tasks is not the same as removing the job. It explains the general idea and does not discuss Qantas or Accenture.
The key insight: As we read the release, the 850-role plan moves the work before it automates it: services go to Accenture’s teams, mostly in India, with a first wave by mid-2027, and only “in time” are they transformed with automation and AI, which is the order the unions’ AI washing claims turn on.
The release says the Qantas Group has signed a strategic partnership with Accenture to modernise its back-end systems, processes and data. It says the airline runs “more than 1,000 legacy applications that were never designed to work together” and invests more than $1 billion in technology each year.
It says “Around 850 roles at the Qantas Group are expected to be affected over the coming years”, that Qantas will consult with affected employees and their unions, and that the first wave of changes is expected to be in place by mid-2027. Accenture will invest upfront to accelerate the modernisation of the Group’s data platforms, the release says.
Chief executive Vanessa Hudson said in the release that the company is “focused on providing redeployment into other roles across the Group where possible”. In a staff email reported by Reuters and ABC News, Hudson said the first changes would hit finance, procurement and marketing; Reuters also listed human resources. ABC reported that Qantas shares rose more than 6 per cent that day.
The sequence set out in the Qantas Group release of 10 November 2026: some corporate services move to Accenture, delivered mostly by its teams in India and some in Australia, and are later transformed with automation and AI. Step labels are our summary; quoted phrases are Qantas’s. The ‘AI washing’ claims are as reported by Reuters on 11 November.
The ‘AI Washing’ Claims
Reuters describes AI washing as companies attributing layoffs to AI tools when the primary driver may be broader cost-cutting measures, such as shifting jobs offshore. The Australian Services Union, which represents the affected Qantas workers, accused the airline of “using AI to launder their cuts to Australian jobs”, Reuters reported.
Australian Council of Trade Unions Secretary Melissa Donnelly said: “Unions are concerned about the risk of companies using AI simply as a cover to cut Australian jobs with no accountability”. Greens Senator Barbara Pocock said she was concerned to see big companies engaging in AI washing, according to Reuters.
A Qantas spokesperson told Reuters it would continue to consult with unions and was focused on redeployment and support for affected staff. Reuters said Qantas did not respond to the concerns around AI washing. On 10 November the ASU said Qantas had told it there was no plan to offshore jobs; a Qantas spokesperson said: “We have never given assurances to the union that some jobs wouldn’t move offshore”.
The Order of the Steps
University of Sydney Business School professor Uri Gal told Reuters the Qantas decision appeared to be due to conventional outsourcing. He asked: “if AI is making these jobs redundant, why does the work first need to be transferred to another group of employees?”
As we read the release, its own wording puts the steps in that order: some services move to Accenture first, and are transformed with automation and AI “in time”, with no date given for that second step. Reuters’ 11 November report named WiseTech and Atlassian, which attributed job cuts this year to AI, and Telstra, which cut jobs from an AI joint venture with Accenture. Its 10 November report listed Woolworths, Officeworks, Telstra and NAB as having announced similar offshoring moves this year.
As we read the numbers, the roles in scope are about 3.0% of Qantas’s Australian workforce, and the release sets them against more than 4,400 operational roles created since 2023, about 5.2 times as many, by our arithmetic, so the airline frames itself as a net employer while the corporate functions shrink.
As we read the reports, the dispute is less about whether AI is coming than about which step comes first: Gal asks why the work must first move to another group of employees, while the release ties the move to modernising more than 1,000 legacy applications and its data platforms.
Qantas Group media release, 10 November 2026
“The partnership will redesign and simplify how parts of the Group’s corporate functions operate.”
Three Implications
FOR QANTAS STAFF The release says Qantas will consult with affected employees and their unions before individual outcomes are determined.
FOR ACCENTURE The release says it will invest upfront to accelerate the modernisation of the Group’s data platforms.
FOR CORPORATE AUSTRALIA Reuters’ AI washing report named WiseTech, Atlassian and Telstra as other companies that have cut jobs this year with AI cited.
The framework puts it this way: “As execution delegates, human effort moves to delegation, supervision, review, and integration, and the returns to domain expertise rise.”
As we read it, the Qantas plan delegates execution twice: first to another workforce at Accenture, then, in time, to automation and AI. The framework does not discuss Qantas or Accenture.
Qantas Group workforce figures from its release of 10 November 2026. The 3.0% share and the 5.2x ratio are our arithmetic.
What Is Not Established
The release does not split the 850 roles between work moving to Accenture’s teams in India, its teams in Australia and roles redesigned away, in the documents we read. Qantas says it will consult before individual outcomes are determined, so the final count may change.
Whether AI or labour cost drives the decision is contested: the unions’ claims and Gal’s view are theirs, and Qantas attributes the partnership to modernising its systems and data. We did not contact Qantas, Accenture or the unions for this piece.
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Qantas says around 850 roles, about 3.0% of its Australian workforce by our arithmetic, will be affected as services move to Accenture, mostly in India, and are only later transformed with automation and AI. Unions and a Greens senator call that AI washing; Qantas says it will consult and redeploy.
A note on sourcing. We read the Qantas Group media release of 10 November 2026 on the Accenture partnership in full. The union, senator and expert statements, the Qantas spokesperson replies, the Reserve Bank and unemployment figures and the other companies named come from Reuters’ reports of 10 and 11 November and ABC News’ report of 10 November, which we read in full. Percentages and the 5.2x ratio are our arithmetic. We did not contact Qantas, Accenture or the unions for this piece.
Gennaro Cuofano is a CRO and tech executive who has worked in AI since late 2015, starting with bringing NLP, natural-language generation, voice and chatbot products to the marketing industry. His background is in law and finance: he holds a Master's degree in Law and an International MBA with an emphasis on corporate finance (LUISS Business School and the University of San Diego, 2012), and worked as a financial analyst at a real-estate investment firm in San Diego and as an assistant controller. His work focuses on business model strategy, business engineering and, more broadly, structural analysis: how companies make money, read from their own filings. He created FourWeekMBA and leads research there and at The Business Engineer, his newsletter on AI and business strategy, with over 95,000 subscribers and more than 1,000 published analyses. His writing has also appeared on Entrepreneur (for example, How to Digitize a Family Business in Europe) and HackerNoon. Find him on LinkedIn and Substack. See how we source.
