Three Weeks, 7,600 Jobs: Australian Tech's AI Reckoning Has Arrived

On February 25, WiseTech Global announced it would cut 2,000 positions over two years. On February 26, Block said it would eliminate more than 4,000 roles. On March 11, Atlassian confirmed 1,600 job losses. Combined, that is 7,600 positions gone in three weeks.

Each announcement carried a similar message: artificial intelligence is changing what companies need from their workforce. None of the three is in financial distress. All remain profitable or, in Atlassian's case, cash-flow positive with strong revenue growth.

The WiseTech statement

WiseTech's new CEO, Zubin Appoo, offered the bluntest assessment of any executive in this wave.

I am prepared to say this clearly: the era of manually writing code as the core act of engineering is over.

— Zubin Appoo, WiseTech CEO

Appoo cited specific tools: Claude Opus 4.6 and GPT 5.3 Codex. These systems, he said, enable what WiseTech calls 'the next phase' of its AI transformation. The company will reduce its engineering headcount by 30% over two years.

WiseTech's stock has fallen significantly from its 2024 highs, driven by governance scandals as much as AI concerns. AustralianSuper sold its entire $580 million stake late last year, citing governance issues.

The Block model

Block, the parent company of Afterpay and Square, cut over 4,000 positions, nearly 40% of its 10,000-person workforce. Co-founder Jack Dorsey posted the rationale directly to social media.

Block reported more than $10 billion in gross profit last quarter, up 17% year on year. The cuts are not about survival. They are about extracting more output from fewer people.

Markets approved. Block's stock jumped 24% on the announcement.

Atlassian's position

Atlassian's 1,600 job cuts included roughly 500 positions in Australia, where the company maintains its operational headquarters. More than 900 of the affected roles were in software research and development.

Mike Cannon-Brookes, co-founder and CEO, framed the decision as adaptation rather than replacement.

It would be disingenuous to pretend AI doesn't change the mix of skills we need or the number of roles required in certain areas. It does.

— Atlassian company statement

Atlassian's Rovo AI product now has 5 million monthly active users. The company is cutting humans to fund more investment in that product. It has not turned a profit in a decade, though cloud revenue continues to grow above 25% annually.

What the pattern shows

The common thread across all three companies is not financial distress. It is a calculated decision to substitute labour with machine intelligence at a scale that was theoretical twelve months ago.

Josh Bersin, a workforce analyst who has tracked HR trends for two decades, identified the shift in a recent analysis.

AI is no longer being positioned as a feature enhancement. It is being positioned as a labour compression lever. We are witnessing the shift from AI as augmentation to AI as a workforce strategy.

— Josh Bersin, HR industry analyst

The numbers support his reading. Challenger, Gray & Christmas, an outplacement firm that tracks job cuts, reported that AI was cited as the primary driver of nearly 55,000 layoffs in the United States in 2025. Microsoft cut approximately 15,000 roles that year, with CEO Satya Nadella noting that AI now writes 30% of the company's code. Salesforce reduced its customer support workforce from 9,000 to 5,000, citing AI.

The super fund question

For Australians with superannuation in balanced or growth options, these layoffs have a direct financial impact.

AustralianSuper increased its Atlassian stake by 675% in the second quarter of 2024, acquiring 52,576 shares. The stock has since fallen 25% year to date. The fund's earlier exit from WiseTech, motivated by governance concerns, now looks prescient.

Members with default investment options have exposure to both sides of this transition: the short-term gains from efficiency announcements at Block, and the structural decline at companies like Atlassian where AI threatens the core business model.

What this means for workers

The implications for anyone working in technology are hard to overstate. These are not struggling companies shedding staff to survive. These are successful businesses concluding that humans are no longer the most efficient way to produce software.

Several enterprise-focused venture capitalists told TechCrunch they had predicted 2026 would be the year AI began taking a meaningful toll on labour. That prediction has come true faster than most expected.

For workers in adjacent fields, the question is how far and how fast this pattern spreads. If profitable software companies are cutting engineering headcount by 30% to 40%, what does that signal for accounting, legal, marketing, and other knowledge work?

The companies are not hiding their intentions. They are stating them plainly, in press releases and social media posts, and markets are rewarding them for it.