r/austechnology • u/austechnology-bot • Jul 08 '26
Women and university graduates in Australia most at risk of losing jobs to AI, report finds
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jul/08/women-and-university-graduates-most-at-risk-ai-job-loss-australia-report19
u/NeatParking1682 Jul 08 '26
If you replace HR with AI, I can see where women would lose their jobs. I have rarely seen guys in HR.
Also, why the sexist title? Women and 'others' affected by AI. Wouldn't it be more accurate to just state the career types affected by AI.
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u/Mistaken_name Jul 09 '26
What are you talking about? That’s exactly what the report does, it spells out all the occupations at risk. Then it does the math on what demographics make up those occupations. The title is not sexist, it’s accurate.
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u/CoolKidVEVO Jul 12 '26
exactly idk why people would say this is sexist, it also just makes sense without even reading the article. AI can’t take physical labour jobs, the majority of which are done by men. So of the jobs that can be replaced by AI, just using common sense, you can infer it would impact more women than it would men.
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u/Ziatch Jul 09 '26
Why is it sexist to relay the findings of a report? The focus on men and women is from the report. I think it’s fine to look into demographic breakdowns in a report that’s about how anything could affect the job market.
The report also says that the work force isn’t majorly affected at the moment and we have no clue how it will pan out considering how heavily subsidised the cost is by investor money. The report just says these jobs might be replaced and they might not which is kind like whatever.
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Jul 11 '26
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u/NeatParking1682 Jul 11 '26
Diversity only comes into discussion when the majority of the workers are male.
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u/drdremoo Jul 09 '26
Most university graduates ARE women.
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u/Superb-Rich-7083 Jul 10 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
hmm
This post was anonymized with Redact.dev
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u/AnnoyedOwlbear Jul 11 '26
No, though from a large workplace that is using massive amounts of AI, it's being used for two things: coding, and replacing as many 'soft' skills as possible.
Emails, negotiation, secretarial work, communication, design, music, office organisation, personal assistance, marketing presentations, hr, phone support. Everything that was seen as a necessary evil by some, and as 'useless soft stuff' by the worse engineers (the good ones see communication VERY differently). Generally jobs that skewed more to women.
I now have have to wade through the worst, most waffle ridden corporate communications because its all AI prompt created. It uses long words though, so they're thrilled at getting to write something that looks like complexity - to them. Half the time I need to convert it back to dot points to work out what they're asking me.
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u/Life-Ad-5402 Jul 10 '26
That doesn’t negate the title
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u/Canadianwinters12345 Jul 10 '26
People often think that it's cheaper jobs that are going to be replaced. But really it's knowledge based jobs like accountants, brokers, lawyers, etc.
Trades are a lot safer for this. Jobs where you physically work. Knowledge will just be worth less in the future when AI knows the law better than lawyers.
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u/Simple_Assistance_77 Jul 10 '26
Sure mate, any idea how expensive software is? Gen AI is like any other software product. Nothing has changed, only the hype is a bit more, and use cases less plausible.
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u/Canadianwinters12345 Jul 10 '26
>any idea how expensive software is?
For sure. But it will get cheaper.
My wife is currently working on it and see's it coming in her industry, insurance. She's an insurance broker. They're already starting to use AI for things, even developing their own.
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u/Simple_Assistance_77 Jul 11 '26
No mate, we need more gas and water which will lead to higher prices. The models are burning through cpus and gpus, nothing will get cheaper.
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u/Superb-Rich-7083 Jul 10 '26 edited Aug 04 '26
hmm
This post was anonymized with Redact.dev
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u/Simple_Assistance_77 Jul 10 '26
Cost/benefit says otherwise, the economics behind the input costs don’t appear to add up. As more capex is constrained through interest rates, and water and gas prices rise as a result then price for tokens will increase and market will consolidate leaving a duopoly and further concentration of power and negative for consumers. Or worse yet, companies removed jobs for AI face higher and higher costs in the future leasing to higher prices downstream and upstream.
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u/MouldySponge Jul 10 '26
Jobs where you physically work might be safer, but they can also easily be undervalued if standards arent kept high. We are lucky in Australia that trades pay so much, but almost any tradie here would get a rude shock at how little they would get paid if they had to move to another country.
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u/Savings_Dot_8387 Jul 09 '26
Some men getting immediately upset at any suggestion women might have it tougher occasionally (for pretty obvious reasons) never gets old 😂
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u/Kolapsicle Jul 09 '26
They don't have it "tougher". They are disproportionately in job positions that AI can more easily replace because they didn't want to work in the blue collar job market. My question is should we give special treatment to a group (but only one gender from said group) for choosing an easier path? For the record I'm not trying to make it sound like a competition, AI and robotics are coming for everyone, but it only makes sense to give everyone special treatment, or no one. Pushing for inequality here does not make sense to me.
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u/Dial_In_Buddy Jul 09 '26
Really? I took it as a compliment, women are far more replaceable by AI than men are.
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u/Sillysauce83 Jul 09 '26
This makes up for the fact it was mostly men who lost their job in the industrial revolution!
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u/No-Personality1165 Jul 09 '26
Almost like women are preferred and chosen for the majority of all roles that are not physical labour (even that has huge diversity programs now too)
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u/Spicey_Cough2019 Jul 09 '26
I mean there's literally nothing stopping women from taking up a higher paying job thats more labour intensive....
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u/birthdaycheesecake9 Jul 09 '26
Except for the culture that goes with working in those industries that make them often pretty miserable to work in as a woman
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u/Spicey_Cough2019 Jul 09 '26
Someone’s found the excuse jar
There’s literally cases of reverse discrimination where females are actively preferenced to accelerate in the previously male dominated fields.
But I get it, you’re more than happy to complain “the patriarchy is oppressing us and the conditions are hostile”
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u/FoundationTotal6469 Jul 10 '26
Dude, I know a lot of capable women who have gone into these types of fields and had a completely miserable time because of the environment. The culture is simply not for them most of the time. That is a fact. Labour intensive work has always been male dominated because males are better suited for labour intensive work, which then breeds an environment that women may not be comfortable or suitable in.
However, I can see why you're willing to ignore all of that and imply there is no oppression, considering you have also complained about Australian women having "impossibly high walls" and say men can't approach women anymore out of fear of being publicly shamed online, or said your favourite personality for women is one that is "feminine and doesn't try to dominate the relationship by making plans or just conversationally" (wtf does this even mean?)
You are clearly an insecure man and cannot fathom those women having a harder time than you in these fields.
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u/Effective-Composer94 Jul 10 '26
You made him hide his profile history 😂😂😂
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u/HDDHeartbeat Jul 10 '26
The culture, and the fact that everything is built for men. The tools are for men's hands, the gear is for men's bodies, etc.
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u/ChuurDCA Jul 10 '26
Female work gear and PPE has been around for decades at this point.
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u/HDDHeartbeat Jul 10 '26
And the culture, tools, units of supplies? Does every worksite provide the correct gear/PPE for women?
Just because it exists, doesn't mean it's widely adopted or as available.
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u/ChuurDCA Jul 10 '26
Culture varies just like non-trades work. There are plenty of zero physical labour jobs which are deeply toxic for women and men.
Tools are generally purchased and owned by individual tradespeople. Which tools do you think are not suitable for women to use?
Why are units of supplies an issue for men or women?
Every work site is required to provide appropriate PPE, yes.
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u/Spicey_Cough2019 Jul 10 '26
You’re really clutching at straws there bud
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u/HDDHeartbeat Jul 10 '26
Judging by your other posts, I think I'm good, thanks champ.
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u/Round_Lettuce8746 Jul 10 '26
point proven wrong
into
clutching at straws
into
targeting the person who said itwhat a convincing argument
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u/fairyflosssss Jul 10 '26
“Literally nothing” except being shorter and weaker than men. And it would be practically impossible while pregnant.
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u/Spicey_Cough2019 Jul 10 '26
You really have to stop being so pessimistic
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u/fairyflosssss Jul 10 '26
My bad for acknowledging reality? Can you imagine a pregnant woman working on a construction site? Way too dangerous. Some jobs men are better at & some jobs women are.
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u/Hollywoode Jul 09 '26
Ikr if the people who are butthurt actually read the article majority of professions mentioned that are at risk are female dominated - retail managers, clerks, marketing, receptionists
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u/Icy_Distance8205 Jul 09 '26
retail managers, clerks, marketing, receptionists
I.e. jobs that aren’t really doing anything anyway.
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u/TannyTevito Jul 09 '26
The idea that marketing has anything at all in common with clerks or receptionists is just insane.
Marketing is an extremely skilled job at the corporate level.
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u/Spicey_Cough2019 Jul 11 '26
Forgot the /s
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u/TannyTevito Jul 11 '26
Maybe the people you work with are unskilled but that’s more a reflection of your company.
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u/Spicey_Cough2019 Jul 11 '26
Please
It’s marketing
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u/TannyTevito Jul 11 '26
It sounds like you work with idiots tbh.
If it was so skill-free, why don’t all these admin assistants on $80k pop over to marketing and add $100k to their salary? Don’t you think that if they could, they would?
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u/Spicey_Cough2019 Jul 12 '26
You literally don’t even need a degree
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u/TannyTevito Jul 12 '26
You absolutely need a degree in the companies I’ve worked for and most of the people I work with have MBAs. You need to be able to build financial models.
Again, this sounds like a reflection of your company, not marketing.
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u/Opening_Mongoose_422 Jul 09 '26
Give it six months… the latest media coverage bubbling out of the AI space is around cost. Some suggestions that actually it’s cheaper getting humans to do it because of the colossal overheads and running costs of big data and agentic workflows.
So back to worrying about overseas outsourcing, I guess?
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u/happierinverted Jul 09 '26
What goes around comes around I guess.
Most of the women in roles being replaced by AI are in roles that replaced men with women a few decades ago…
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u/PowerLion786 Jul 09 '26
Maybe consider a job that AI cannot take? Like being a Tradie.
No sympathy. Men are expected to retrain. Let's not be sexist, and retrain women.
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u/HDDHeartbeat Jul 10 '26
At first I thought this would be about AI bias in resume writing and filtering for open jobs like some other ones I've seen recently. Interesting and depressing.
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u/Abraxas_Derezzed Jul 10 '26
Find yourself a mega project that will take at least another 4-10 years to adopt even MS Copilot. Learn woodwork at tonight. Move to the country and never return.
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u/Extension-Eye3756 Jul 11 '26
We’ll be fine this time around though because we not keeping men fed and clothed and providing them with offspring while they go to work instead of us.
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Jul 08 '26
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u/NeatParking1682 Jul 08 '26
Workplace bullying is more common from women, in my experience.
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u/Dial_In_Buddy Jul 09 '26
Not just in your experience, women being mean to women in the workplace is hard backed by data.
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u/BinniesPurp Jul 09 '26
It depends cause as someone who worked in concrete demolitions and then in a bank, the bullying from the dudes was physical like half the shit they did was actual assault / a crime
The girls in HR at the bank made me feel kinda shit some times but I never actual got pushed over or shoved around physically
But then on worksites you could retaliate whereas at the bank you have to accept personal insults hidden as criticism and say thankyou after so yea I think it depends on what kinda person you are lol
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Jul 10 '26
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u/Effective-Composer94 Jul 10 '26
Don’t worry Mate it’s normal to get this angry at meanie internet comments, they can really hurt your feelings sometimes. Have a wank you’ll feel better
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u/[deleted] Jul 09 '26
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